Culinary School: Week 4

This week was hard. There were several late nights on campus. And lots of time spent on my feet running walking quickly from thing, to thing, to thing. Some mornings when I got to my desk at work, I couldn't remember what day it was or how I got there, the days seemed to blend together and become one long day that went something like work, school, eat, sleep, repeat. Some mornings rolling out of bed felt like the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. At times I wondered if I could physically go on like this sleep deprived, with sore feet, unsure of whether I needed to be wearing my chef coat or my work clothes. But somehow I made it to Friday. I'm not sure how but I did. I'm sure this won't be my last week where I hold on for dear life and pray that my eye lids will stay open just a little longer, I guess the point is that this one is over and I'm still alive. One night after getting out of class later than usual I got home and Adam and I got talking about all of this. I told him about my frustrations and my concerns and he simply told me with all the sincerity he could muster up that he was proud of me. For some reason hearing that made me not just want to continue on this crazy course but excel. He's proud, that made something inside me click. I can do this. In pastry and baking this week we made baguettes! We made standard shaped baguettes and epi shaped baguettes, those are the funky piecey looking loafs. They were so delicious. I'm looking forward to practicing at home, and getting really good at shaping them. My instructor did a demo on the shaping and rolling process, I had never seen the baguette making process, but if you ever have I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say it's a beautiful process. It's almost like a dance between your hands and the dough. I loved watching her fold, and turn, press, roll, and drape it was lovely. The baguettes baked up to be crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, delicious, loafs of bread. In my cooking skills class we had a banquet this week so we did a lot of prep work for that. Overall a stressful week but in a good way. Next week is my first practical, it's basically a way to test my skills on the things we've learned so far. My instructor will give me 4 or 5 things to chop or make with various techniques and I'll have to do it without help, if that's not bad enough it's timed. Let the sleepless nights and anxiousness begin!