As the class worked on our Bake Shop projects today, we were treated to the expletive-laced commentary from Chef Klaus' hot kitchen as the students in the class ahead of ours produced their evaluation meal for their third and final rotation through his domain. Comforting to know that we aren't the only ones treated to Chef Klaus' "tough love". They seemed to be fine at the end of the day, and shared a big plate of their evaluation meal with us (I understand that they got the equivalent of a "C") that was very good. Our production for this week has been varied, with the highlights being a very satisfying cheesecake, a moist and tasty chocolate chiffon cake, and a very dense, heavy treat called a Sacher (pronounced soccer) Torte that is very popular throughout Europe. These combined with our practice in layer cake building and icing kept us just marginally busy so there was plenty of time to prepare our Bake Shop Recipe Books (yes, another A+ for yours truly) and to listen to Jessica and Sandy chat excitedly about their trip to Chicago this weekend to work in the VIP tent of the Lollapalooza Rock Festival (http://www.lollapalooza.com/). Seems Sandy is friends with the organizers of the event and arranged for Jessica to join her working the bar for the bands. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to get video of one of their hand-holding, jumping up and down, giggling and squealing "We're going to Chicago!" spells that overtook them off and on throughout the week.
They will not be back until Tuesday, and I've no doubt they will manage to have a good time.
That does mean, though, that Enju and I will be the only students in Chef Sigi's Hot Kitchen II on Monday, so I expect to be very busy if we try to produce an entire day of production. Hoping for the best.
A little change of pace in the Bake Shop this week, as a break from working in teams for most of our projects we were given the simple formula for pastry cream (that tasty vanilla pudding that goes into eclairs, cream puffs, etc...) and had to produce it with no input from Chef Chad. To add some interest, we had a competition wherein we all blind tasted the results and voted for the best batch. In some sort of crazy mis-alignment of the stars I did not win (it may have been the less-than-velvety-smoothness of my cream). Sandy had the hands-down winning pastry cream and as a prize gets full points for everything this week, which is good, since she lost a couple points for leaving a day early to run off to Chicago and work with the circus.
With my mom visiting this week it's been a WOO-HOO! sort of party atmosphere at home. We've had some fun and I've learned that with the proper research you can find an episode of NCIS at almost any time of the day. I feel very guilty about leaving her alone at the house as I go to class each day and that is odd, since it never seemed to bother me when I was in High School. I do appreciate her patience and will make it up to her this weekend as we get out and about for some tasty eats, an ATV tour, a trip to the beach, and probably a couple movies she wants to see. It's nice to have some company with Wendy still on the Mainland and the feeling of security I get from having someone awake in the house at 4 A.M. is nice. Here's a tip, Mom...if you stay up past 8:30 at night, you can sleep beyond 4 in the morning. Just sayin.
Tomorrow will see us parting ways with our Advanced Pastry students. Robert, Aurora, and Lei will be with Chef Chad for three more weeks and then move up to the advanced evening course for 36 weeks. They'll do fine and hopefully we'll be seeing them in the coming months.
I try my best to pass on the knowledge and wisdom I've accumulated over the many long years of my life. One of the best pieces of advice I can give is:
Carry a box.
On class days we stay pretty busy, but there are times that you just want to relax and get out of the kitchen flow for a few minutes. The most commonly used place for these unofficial breaks is the sink, where the pots, pans, and dishes are always being cleaned up. Trouble is, there's only room for one person to work at the sink, so there's a bit of competition to spend a little "clean up time" there. This is especially true when the Chef is angry or in a pissy mood...the sink is something of a refuge, even if the same pan gets cleaned several times. We were laughing about "sink time" yesterday and it prompted me to tell these young people about my days working the gun counter at Bass Pro Shop in Virginia. Here is the sum of my sage advice:
When it isn't always busy, workers tend to gather and shoot the breeze which isn't usually well thought of by the boss...so it's important to LOOK like you are busy. If you carry a box, you look busy. Big or small, empty or full, doesn't matter. A guy with a box...well, he's doing something. Or he's about to do something. Or he just got done doing something. Point is, he has a box, which is like a cloak of invisibility for slackers. Going to another work station to talk to a buddy? Carry a box. And don't saunter, walk smartly. A guy walking smartly with a box is on a mission and will pass unmolested. It's magical.
In the kitchen we have towels that we carry to dry hands, wipe tables, pick up hot pans, etc... While not as effective as a box (I think because we all carry them), if properly used they can be very effective. The key is to USE the towel. As you walk from area to area, wipe your hands (whether they're wet or not), wipe the counter(whether it needs it or not), or just shake the towel out and re-fold it...you can walk around doing nothing for a long time (I've experimented) without catching any flack from the Chef.
So for God's sake don't just lean on the counter looking bored. Carry a box, use your towel, continually shuffle useless papers, adapt the concept to your own work environment. Take this insight my friends, and run with it. You're welcome.
Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. Robert Redford
Another great post; even if a lot of it was at my expense!
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