OK, everybody rotate...

Wow.  This week marks the end of our first rotation through the course's five functional areas, Classroom, Garde Manger, Hot Kitchen I, Bake Shop, and Hot Kitchen II.  Three weeks in each area plus a bonus week working on the Grande Buffet seem to have gone by very fast and it has me wondering just how much of the information and practical work the class will retain.  The bulk of our academic work came in the first three weeks while in the Classroom setting, with the far more practical (and interesting) information coming from the Chefs themselves in each of the kitchen phases.  I think a fair balance was struck, as cooking, with all it's history and theory, is ultimately a practiced skill refined by repetition and experimentation.

I just thought up that last line.  Really, they should hire me as a consultant to work on our textbook, which was apparently edited by the proverbial Thousand Monkeys on a Thousand Typewriters that would eventually type out all the works of Shakespeare.  A $100 textbook did not exist in my world before I took up this course of study, and now that I have one I can only say that somebody who cannot spell or produce an accurate graph is standing in line at a bank somewhere, chuckling and getting the date wrong on his deposit slip.  On the bright side, Enju was finally able to score a Korean language version of the textbook, so now she can get the same mis-information as the rest of us.

In discussing our menu for our first practical exercise, I voiced my opinion that the salad we were contemplating making was too "busy" with contrasting ingredients and the apple coating on our pork main dish seemed as though it would be overly-sweet.  Ultimately we agreed on the menu as it was and were able to produce a pretty decent meal for Chef Sigi, making a complex salad, Apple-Crusted Pork Chops with Sauteed Asparagus and Potatoes Romanoff, and a dessert of baked Asian pears ala mode with caramel sauce.  It all came off very well, and a really decent score was achieved for our grade with only a couple of points deducted...for a too "busy" salad with contrasting ingredients and the coating on our pork main dish, which Chef Sigi said was a little too sweet.  I'm just sayin.

So Monday will find us back in the classroom, books, lectures, and notes for three weeks.  I believe Chef Klaus is our classroom instructor, and that is a very good thing, as I have great respect for his knowledge, teaching style, and sense of humor.

I'd like to offer up kudos to the German Chef Apprenticeship program in the late
1950s. They have provided us with a Triumvirate of Chef Instructors that have made our first rotation through the school's departments interesting as well as educational. Chefs Otto, Klaus, and Sigi all received their training as apprentices in Germany circa 1956 or so, and have been cooking and running food service operations for over 160 years combined. They have been literally around the world, cooking in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australia.   
I would also like to offer a big thumb–up to Chef Chad, whose discipline and fastidious nature are perfect compliments to his skills in the Bake Shop.   I look forward to the next three months and our second rotation through each of their kitchens.

Things that made me shake my head this week:

Our end of phase test - Don't just give us the answers, make us do the work.

GQ Magazine - I'd never looked through one before, but got a subscription to support elementary school fund raising.  I have never known anyone that would dress and look like the models.  And I felt like they should all be punched in the face.

South Seas Motorcycle - "5-7 days, we have to order the part"  10 days later: "Oh, we had to order the tool to change the part, it'll be 5-7 days"   7 days later:  "Yeah, we ordered the tool...I need to check on that, call you this afternoon."  4 days later:  Maybe I should call THEM.

Seattle Mariners - Brandon League loses 4 games in 8 days, giving up the winning run(s) in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 13th innings.  Hmmm....time to find a new late-inning pitcher?  Right? Ja? Right? No? Ja?

Chef Sigi - The third of our three German chefs to mention Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech...let it go, gentlemen, let it go.

"Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that crap."

- GEORGE CARLIN