Wow. It is still amazing to me that I get to do this thing that I have wanted for so long. I realize how very lucky I am that I have an amazing husband who is supportive and encouraging. He told me in the midst of my doubts last week about the financial wisdom of me being in school that I didn’t realize how much faith he has in me. I guess I didn’t. I want to succeed for both of us.
I am taking two classes, Safety and Sanitation (online) and Culinary I. The S&S class also serves as the certification class for the ServeSafe certificate (after I pass a final in December) which means that I will have a safety and sanitation certificate. It seems a small thing but a least one job that I have applied for has required such a thing.
Culinary I is the intro to cooking course. The Nashville State kitchen is very well appointed (not that I have another school kitchen to compare it with) and the chef instructor is someone I am really looking forward to working with and learning from. He’s a Civil War re-enactor with a period mustache that makes him somehow less intimidating than my mental image of the red-faced, screaming French chef throwing saucepans at apprentices’ heads.
The class starts with knife skills and works through stocks, soups, sauces, vegetables and starches. We finish up with egg cookery. There are written exams as well as production exams, the first mostly being knife skills.
Speaking of knives, I am ordering my knife kit on Friday along with my chef coat, checked pants and floppy hat. I am giddy of course. The knife kit has everything the program requires and a few extra goodies including a insta-read thermometer and measuring spoons and cups. The school has a special deal with a tool company that supplies the German-made (not either of the two big names) knives. Knives, which because of the very strict rules about carrying weapons on campus, we are not allowed to have at hand except in the kitchen and back and forth from our cars. No running off to an afternoon class with your kit in your hand or apparently you will have a nasty run in with security. I’m glad the chef mentioned it or I probably would have been the idiot getting wrestled to the floor, screaming, “You can have my knives when you peel them from my unconscious fingers.” Not an auspicious beginning to be sure.
This past week was, as you can tell, all about introductions. This week should be a little more exciting.
