I found myself sitting at my computer two weeks ago, trying to find the thoughts and words that usually come pretty easily for me when I work on this Blog. I had nothing. We've been in classroom mode, and although it's interesting and informative it just hasn't caused any creative juices to flow through my little pointy brain. The bulk of our lessons have involved the the science of various cooking methods and fabrication (cutting and preparation for cooking) of meats and fish, and all this very practical and useful information doesn't lend itself well to spellbinding bloggery. As always, I want to provide interesting commentary, so I wracked my brain for many minutes trying to put together an edition of The Innocent, but came up empty.
So I took a week off from the pressure.
As it turns out, the middle of last week brought me the opportunity to catch an Air Force flight to Alaska where I was able to get some personal business done, visit some great friends, and feel chilly for the first time in almost a year. I love it when I get the chance to hop on a cargo plane and travel, it's one of the great hidden benefits of military service. This trip was on a C17 that had 54 seats going to Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, Alaska. The flight was on time, I was able to get a ride from the base, and my most excellent friends and co-workers in Fairbanks and Anchorage helped make my long weekend trip a roaring success. The only downsides to my spur-of-the-moment trip were missing two days of class that I'm hoping Chef Klaus will forgive me for, and eating a meal that several friends recommended to me at one of Alaska's highest-rated restaurants that upset my stomach for two days afterward. Also the fact that I wasn't able to score any cheap king crab to bring back (prices on everything have gone up).
I am surprised how often people I talk to express envy at my being in a culinary arts course, and tell me that it has been a desire (even a dream) of theirs to do the same. I'm certain this has something to do with The Food Network, but I can't prove it. I have a lot of friends and relatives that are into cooking and it makes for some great conversations, but I feel just a little self-conscious when asked "What have you learned?" or "What are you cooking for us?" The answers are simple: A lot, and nothing. So far.
The course at Gros Bonnet is designed to prepare students for work in the professional kitchen and a lot of the important information is directly related to that end and just doesn't relate to conversation outside that environment. For example last week, in addition to meat and fish fabrication and cooking methodology we spent a lot of time on menu costing, profit margins, food cost percentages and such. When my friends ask about school, I don't want to bore them with these very necessary topics. Just like I'm boring you now...let's move on.
I'm told we have an extra-long test on Thursday marking the end of our second rotation classroom session.
OH, GOD, NO!!!!! NOT ANOTHER TEST!! Yeah, I think we are all feeling better about our test performances since the last classroom, so we face Thursday with far less apprehension than before. I'll keep you posted on our relative success. I'll try to get back on track with my posting of The Innocent, with more excitement, more kitchen adventures, and more lack of political correctness since next week marks the return of Chef Otto from his six week vacation. Stay tuned.
Today is Memorial Day. A time to remember and offer thanks to military service members that have given so selflessly over the generations to ensure that we keep our freedoms. There are SO MANY things that are wrong and need fixing in this country, but in the end it's still the greatest place in the world, so let's not lose sight of that fact.
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