Testing...Testing...1...2...3

Ok so I'm sorry I've been absent for a bit, it's been crazy busy these last couple weeks.  This will probably be sooooo long because I haven't been keeping up and so much has happened, hmmmm, where to begin?

I have a head chef named Chef Tom and sometimes two assistant chefs Chef Mike and Chef Jean.  Chef Tom is awesome, he's a former military man and very structured and organized and I really dig that.  Plus he is very helpful and encouraging when he helps you.  It's weird because you are constantly seeking the approval from these people because you want them to like you and you want them to think you're doing an awesome job.  I got a fist bump from Chef Tom and it made my day, so I have no worries that he thinks I'm doing a good job because he gives good feedback.  Chef Mike freaks me out!  I don't think he likes me at all, my roommate is convinced it's because he knows we're roomies and he doesn't like her.  But I just think he's harded on us and not as vocal.  But when he takes off the chef's coat he's a cool guy, it's weird.  Chef Jean is cool but not there often, she rotates.

To give you an idea of how much pastry goods I am producing and how much we are working, I will give you a rundown of what we've made in 13 days of class.  We have made candied lemon peels, lemon curd, an apple compote, raspberry compote, almond cream, pastry cream, 18 different tarts, 5 different cookies, 4 kinds of dough, 3 different whipped creams, 3 different meringues and a partridge in a pear tree.  And some of the dough's we've made 6 or 7 times!  Man I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

I have a bunch of pictures to post on Facebook so I will do that today.  The bad news is we have had 2 dropouts already and I think a possible third anyday now.  I guess maybe they didn't realize how intense the program was and with the long commutes and personal issues it just got to be too much.  I feel bad for them but it's less competition for me.

Tests, tests, tests and more tests! 

I have taken like 6 pop quizzes in the last week and a half, thankfully this stuff has been committed to my long-term memory somehow because I sometimes feel it's like in one ear and out the other.  So we received our Sanitation results today and I passed with flying colors, of course.  I got a 91% if anyone is keeping track. 

We took our first Unit Exam today so the last couple days I've been trying to study as hard as I can, but you know procrastination is my middle name.  So the exam is a Written Exam and a Practical Exam.  For the written we had to answer questions on ingredients of recipes and method to cook them (all without notes), conversions from American weights to Metric weights, temperature from Farenheit to Celsius and vice versa, vocabulary terms and just matching and true false questions.  It was surprisingly a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I guess when you make something over and over again you just know it.  The Practical Exam was 1 large tart, 4 small tarts and 6 cookies that we had to present to the chef for tasting, grading, etc.  Thank God we got to use our recipes for this part!  I made the Tarte Aux Noix Caramel (Carmel Nut Tart) as the large one, Quiche Lorraine as the small tartelettes and Vanille-Kipferl (Viennese Vanilla Crescents) for the cookies.  My group was the first ones done so it makes you feel good.  However I avoided a disaster with the help from a friend because my cookies were a little on the dry side and crumbling apart while I was shaping the dough.  Then she reminded me that we ammended the recipe with 1 egg, which I wrote down but missed it somehow, so criss averted, thank you Clarice!  Chef Mike had to do my evaluation of my finished pieces (which I'm pissed I didn't take a picture of) but I was a little nervous what he would say.  I feel he's been warming up to me since he told us our stuff was perfect the other day and my stuff was awesome today.  I got a 96 on my written and a 96 on my practical and a 93 on my grade for the week - YAY ME!!

So now that I know I'm doing well I am not so stressed out, phew, now I can sleep well tonight!

Other than that I've just been trying to meet new people and hang out with people in my program.  I've signed up to be a Student Representative and I've been going to Chef Demo's, I'll have to talk more about that another time.

Hope all is well out there, I'm off to celebrate!