Week 1: Sweat, blood and tears

I survived my first week. Here is how it went down. I arrived bright and early on Saturday, with my super heavy kit, my uniform in my bag, notebook and pen. Registration was fast and easy, they took my picture for my ID (at 8 am!-not good) and was given my tote bag with my books. People: if I thought the kit was heavy the book bag surpassed it 10 times! I honestly could barely carry it to class. I was assigned a locker, I got changed into my chef whites – of course I had to ask another girl how to tie my apron – but embarrassment aside, I looked good. I checked myself one last time in the mirror, and couldn’t believe I was actually dressed like a real chef – I smiled, wiped my teary eyes and was ready to go.

We gathered in what would be our kitchen for the next 9 months. There we were 8 of us, ages ranging from 50 to 18, scared and excited. They took us through orientation and gave us a short tour of the school (I spotted one of the guys who had been on Top Chef). The only thing that was drilled into our heads during orientation was: DO NOT MISS CLASS…EVER! I swear the woman repeated it like 20 times.

The big moment arrived: we got our knives. They are beautiful, shinny and sharp as hell! Again, another bag to carry.

I had one concern from the night before, according to the welcome sheet we had to plan for our own lunch but: you could not leave the building; there was no fridge or microwave available. What??? So I packed a banana and some nuts… I had to ask the question during orientation: “when do we have lunch?” – Judge away! Yes! I am a pig, I’m obsessed with food- answer: “there is no break, weekend program is the most intense of all, although the good thing about cooking school is that you will be tasting food all the time, so it’s ok”- needless to say we didn’t taste anything during the 8 hours of class.

The next few hours we discussed sanitation – written exam next week- we identified fresh herbs – I got 9 of 10 right yes!- and started practicing our knife skills. Chop a potato medium dice, slice an onion, mince an onion, chop an onion, I think between mince and chop I cut my finger. Of course that was going to happen, it wasn’t too bad and I laughed the whole time ( I attribute it to starvation) I got it washed, and got one of those finger condoms I ‘ve seen in Chopped ( so cool!) I kept bleeding for a while but it was ok. After that, Chef asked us to grate parmesan cheese – you had to be kidding me- I almost ate the raw potato, now I had a big pile of fresh grated parmeggiano reggiano, I wanted to drown my self in it and die.  The first day came to an end, I was exhausted, excited, and so so happy. Then I realized I had to carry all the bags home, thank God a girl told me to leave my kit in the locker, she totally agreed that our ovaries would fall from carrying all that weight – at least that was my grandma says.

I came home full of adrenaline, and excitement, I couldn’t wait to see my books, see Penny, and talk to my friends …and do my homework. Yes homework: medium dice 2 potatoes, and bring them the next day. I sharpened my chef knife( I learned that – I look totally bad ass!)  and started dicing my potatoes, and couldn’t get the size right, so the majority of the potato ended up in the sink, but I did it, and guess what? I cut myself again!!! My personal goal is to loose only 2 fingers so we are right on track.

Day 2 started with a discussion with the career counselor, and it was intense. Externships, trailing, (I think that means you just show up in a restaurant, show your skills and work that day for free) resumes, job placement, volunteering, networking, this was no joke. More to come on that, I’m sure.

Then the dicing, and chopping started again, and again, then we blanched, peeled and chopped again. It was awesome! I got to eat some haricort verts we blanched -guess that was lunch.

So that’s it, no cutting my self this time, getting more comfortable with the knife and super super tired and super super happy…I can’ wait for next Saturday – allez cuisine!