And it Continues…

Phase II is officially no joke. The amount of change between the first and second phase is substantial. It feels like I have been accidentally placed in a more advanced part of the program with no warning. Speed, cleanliness and presentation are taken much more seriously.

Our new chef is constantly circulating the kitchen with his clipboard, grading us on every movement. Stress and competition is high. Its also a blast. I can’t believe how much I have changed as a cook in only four months.

We are also in the process of evaluating restaurants for our externships, which begin in late March, which is terrifying.

Today, we served a Soupe Du Pecheur En Croute – a seafood soup baked inside of a puff pastry. The demo of this was amazing. Very tasty and elegant. Sadly, 85 percent of the soups caved in the oven – we are not sure wether it was due to excessive oven door opening or not making our puff pastry blankets cold enough or large enough – it needs to be able to fully cover our soup bowls so that it can puff over the bowl. Out of the four my team had to make, three of the caved but we had one fantastic one, which we were able to serve our guest. Thank God we only had to serve one person today.

Yesterday, we made the exact meal that was prepared for me when I went to visit as a prospective student so it was oddly important to me that I nail it. My teammates and I did a great job of pulling it together and chef appeared to be pleased.

Monday is typically our day off but we are having a “makeup” day and taking a fieldtrip to the Lexington Market. I haven’t been to Baltimore since a former boss of mine made me go to a rave (yeah… a rave) with him. I spent much the the evening and early morning in a warehouse with a bunch of twenty year olds high on ecstasy, giving each other back messages. Who knew club kids had such great hands…

With rougly $7.00 to my name, this trip should be interesting. I’m hoping to hit my brother up for some cash so that I can buy a few goodies that will ultimately be to his benefit.

Tomorrow is the last day of the week and after the reality of last Friday (our first Friday in class – we had those days off last phase), I can officially report that there is no “casual Friday” at this school. Service is equally, if not more demmanding. I guess it is good practice for the reality of a Friday in a restaurant, which is prime time.