Back to School

My chef's jacket (on a hanger, not ready yet for that full-uniform shot...)

I've finished Day 3 of my year of culinary school. It already feels like I've been there for weeks. I'm getting used to putting on all of the pieces of my uniform each morning--checkered pants, black shoes, chef's jacket, hat, cravat, name tag, ID lanyard, thermometer in pocket. Sounds like a lot to deal with, but I've never had to wear a uniform before (at my high school, pretty much anything but a bikini top was fair game) and it's kind of refreshing to wake up each morning and not have to think about picking out clothes--especially when it's 5:30 a.m.

School starts at 7 and that means we're in our seats and ready for lineup, where our uniforms are inspected. Professionalism is a HUGE deal here and an impeccable uniform goes hand in hand with that. But my instructors--Chef M. and Chef L.--have been pretty lax so far. Apparently, once we get settled they'll start nit-picking about things like too-long fingernails or too-short socks (they have to be over the ankle, the kind of socks I hate...looks like I'll be buying new socks this weekend).

My first class is Skills 1. 40-some new students started with me on Monday; we were then split into two classes. The other half of the group started with Food Science, and after three weeks, we'll flip. They went down the hall to their classroom and we stayed put in the large demonstration kitchen where our short orientation was held. I was excited to start out in a kitchen. In Skills 1, we won't actually cook anything, but we'll (endlessly) practice our knife skills, learn our way around the kitchen, and work on identifying spices, oils, and vinegars by sight, smell, and taste. The instructors, however, will cook demos that we'll get to taste--we've already had two so far. Plus a sample of scrumptious bread pudding that a baking and pastry class made.

I'm already a little sad that we'll only be with Chef M. and Chef L. for three weeks. Chef M. was introduced by the head of the school as an ex-Navy officer, which made me scared. But he's super-nice and really funny. And Chef L. is a young Asian guy, an ex-engineering major who is shorter than I am (!) and always smiling. My classmates range from a guy who graduated high school in June to a woman who works at a cool restaurant in Decatur at night and has a five-year-old. It's a good group.

Today we had a quiz on chapters 1 and 2 in our pro chef book, which covered basic history of modern restaurant cooking (Careme, Escoffier, the brigade system...) and a brief overview of food safety (bacteria, fire hazards...). I haven't taken a quiz or a test in a while and, not going to lie, I was excited. And I made my first A :)

Then we took a tour of the student-run restaurant, Lumiere. It's got a huge open kitchen and a very legit-looking dining room and bar. That's where I'll spend the last six weeks of the program. But there's a lot to get through before I'll be ready to actually cook for paying customers. Sure enough, we returned to our classroom and cut carrots--julienne and batonnet--for an hour.