Not So Lazy Anymore...

I got a little part-time job at the school. It's three days a week and ranges only from 12 to 15 hours a week. It shouldn't be too bad. I want to see if I can work at career services too. I've got to be able to afford all the alcohol I'm consuming....and the bills. (Let's not talk about that right now.)

Cakes, Day 8

I finished assembling a tiramisu cake and put it in the cafeteria afterhours because I'm not a huge fan of it. I went back about 15 minutes later and the whole cake was gone. I wished I had taken out at least one slice so that everyone can share it. I didn't even taste it.

The day before we had made pound cake in 9" round pans to practice slicing them on a turntable. I managed to get four layers out of it. Cutting off the dome is kind of hard. Then we went on to the chiffon cakes made on Friday. With those sliced into layers, I made chocolate mousse cake.

Parchment went on the bottom and acetate on the sides. The bottom layer of the chocolate chiffon goes down, some cake syrup brushed or sprayed, then a layer of chocolate mousse until it's done. The mousse is the hardest thing I had to do so far. I had a few lumps in it the 1st time I made it, so I threw it away. The 2nd time was even worse. I wasn't going to make it again so I pressed out of the lumps I could. It's going to be dense when it comes out of the freezer today.

The Weekend

The weekend was spent trying to not go outside because out there is where the money gets spent. But I did anyway. I found a not too bad Vietnamese sandwich place where every sandwich is $2.50. I ate an almond croissaint at a donut shop and got a cake donut with chocolate and sprinkles for free for no reason other than the lady behind the counter wanted to give out stuff for free. Then there was drinking and lots of it Friday and Saturday night. And I'm about to go hang out with everyone again tonight. I had way too much Jaeger and beer last night. I'm sticking only to beer and my last bowl of the week...or until someone is kind enough to smoke me out. Oh yeah...we went to a pool at some apartment building after a get-together and got kicked out because we were swimming at 1AM in our underwear. I got a 4.4 cubic ft refridgerator and a microwave for the dorm room. I hope you guys had just as good of a weekend as I did.

Enjoying the Slience

So, my roommate has been gone for about three days now. She decided to move out (next door) after I snapped at her for having some dude in the room at late hours for the second night in a row.

The first night, they were in her bed together "watching a movie." I didn't want to be around that, so I left my room, hung out with some other people and came back later. They left the door unlocked and partially opened all night. I had already asked her to keep the door locked because I don't trust people. So I wasn't happy about that. Big Jon goes past the door and swings it open and looks in. He giggles when he sees them, but they still didn't get up to close or lock the door.

The second night, I go to bed around 230am. Less than two hours after that, she brings that dude back into the room. The dorm has some strict rules. No vistors after 11pm. But, they're 10 feet away from me not doing a good job of talking quietly. I get up to put my headphones on but I can hear them over the music. I'm really surprised how nice I was about it. I didn't cuss or yell. I told them they need to be quiet because that guy wasn't supposed to be there anyway. They quickly apologized and left.

The next day, I left for school early. She tells me that she's going to move about because "we don't have good communication." Ha! Whatever...but that was the best thing to ever come out of her mouth.

I was not feeling this chick early on. During the end of the second week, I was looking for the Chef to talk about her. Chef said I should go easy on her because her grandmother was sick. A few days later, grandma dies, then she brings that lame ass dude in here. She wasn't that upset over her dying!

I'm really good at making people cry. Sometimes I don't spare any feelings with the way I talk to people. Here are the reasons why she was driving me crazy.

• She talks way too much. If I was leaving, she would still be talking about something I really didn't give a shit about.
• She talks at the wrong times. I don't want to hear anything anyone has to say while they're taking a dump.
• What she has to say is uninteresting. So many times when she was watching tv, she would repeat something they just said just to be saying something. Like, "did you know that popcorn was the first food cooked in a microwave?"
• First day, she talked about how much money she made at her last job and how much responsibility she had. I don't care, really, especially on the first day.
• She can't mind her own business. I decided not to go back to class after lunch one day. About an hour before class was over, out of nowhere she says to the Chef, "I wonder where my roommate is." Chef noticed that a few other people had left too. And then Chef took roll. The next day, a few other students came up to me and asked me to talk to my roommate because she ruined the possibility of them leaving unnoticed. Every day after, Chef took roll after lunch.
• If we came to the door at the same time or were leaving at the same time, she never ever pulled out her keys to lock the door. She always waited for me.
• I found a used maxi pad under the sink unwrapped. And left it there when she moved!
• She's one of those people who never changed the toilet paper roll even if there was one sheet left on it or none.
• She never cleaned the bathroom. I ended up cleaning twice a week because she had hair and everything else all over the bathroom.
• She never left the room except for school and the few hours at work. With her being straight edge, I guess that meant to never go anywhere. So when I came in, all she wanted to do was talk.
• I never felt comfortable leaving the bathroom not completely dressed. She was practically stare at me. She's a starer anyway, but you shouldn't stare at someone while they're in a towel.
• She left her crusty underwear on the floor for three days. How do I know they were crusty? I accidently stepped on them!

Cakes, Day 3

We finished our cheesecakes and chocolate decadence cakes. I wasn't feeling the decadence as much and I didn't put that much effort into the chocolate writing we had to do on top. I put it downstairs in the cafeteria with all the others no one wanted to take home.

My cheesecake came out a lot better than I thought it would. I made raspberry with a walnut crust and candied walnuts on top. I went light on the raspberries because it was very tart. I ate most of the candied walnuts before I let anyone else have any. I don't have a refridgerator, so I left it on the security guard's table all night hoping someone else would eat it.

I have a crap lot of competencies to finish.

Cakes, Day 2

Cheesecake! Mmmm Hmmm. From what I hear, our Chef gave us more room to work with than the AM Chef. They had to make theirs with a chocolate crust, we could do whatever we wanted. I wanted to make a strawberry cheesecake, but the school hadn't ordered any, so that was out of the question. So, I ended up making a raspberry walnut cheesecake. For the crust, I used graham and minced walnuts. Raspberry puree went into the mix. With so many people (34, when everyone is there) using the ovens, it took almost 1 1/2 to finish baking.

The Dorms and Why I'm Starving

The school owns two buildings out of the five or six places they call student housing. I'm in one of the two they own, Sonoma Hall. It's five stories with co-ed floors. Each room has it's own bathroom, twin beds, walk-in closet (if you're lucky), and basic cable. I think I'm lucky with a pretty new matress, good looking carpet, and the bathroom doesn't scare me.

It sucks being right off the elevator, but I've learn to sleep with my headphones on. The building is old school, built in the 1920's. It had one of the cage elevators that will slam on you, if you're not careful. There's a water leak somewhere. Some people have water dripping in their bathrooms down the medicine cabinet.

For entertainment, there's a pool table (with several rips in the felt, no cue sticks, 8 ball is missing, and I swear there are three 4 balls) and a big screen TV. The couches are ripped just as bad as the material on the pool table, but the TV works.

I think it's a bit of a stretch calling it a dorm. There's no kitchen available, no refridgerators or stoves. There's a microwave in the lobby. The smart ones have mini-fridges or hotplates (which aren't allowed). I find it cheap to be at a culinary school and not be able to practice what you're learning. They're not willing to build a kitchen when they're is plenty of room for one. They would have to remodel the building and probably kick us out. I don't see that happening when they just started letting students move in July.

Eating out every day sucks. I don't have the money and besides, I like cooking better. So I eat a lot of Top Ramen, Easy Mac, potato chips, and cookies.

So, you're probably thinking that I could eat at school. Well, I can Monday thru Friday during the lunch break. Unfortunately, my Top Ramen tastes better than what they give us. They don't actually have a cafeteria. The majority of the food consist of what the culinar students made in class. The "cafeteria" sometimes will make bratwurst, chili, mac & cheese, rice, or some nasty crap. What sucks even more is that the new culinary students are at the south campus (with the B&P students). The only way for them to eat is to eat what they make in class. So, we get hand me downs that they don't even want to eat.

I stay away from any bread that the culinary students make and anything that's supposed to be to hot or cold. The "cafeteria" doesn't keep anything ice or in hot-holding equipment. After going through the Safety and Sanitation class, I'm afraid of everything in there.

The "Cafeteria" is closed on the weekends.

My Grades So Far

Yesterday, Chef gave me my grades for the last three classes. I still waiting for someone to get back to me on my password for the student portal. I did way better than I thought I would do.

Safety & Sanitation - B
Intro to Baking Science - A
Knife & Piping Skills - A

Whoo hoo...if I can keep up with all the work in Cakes, I'll feel even better.

Knife and Piping Skills

We started off tracing chocolate filagree. Chef melted the chocolate for us. The chocolate we used is low in sugar and waxy. It tastes like bad Halloween candy. We learned how to make coronets - a piping bag made of wax paper. It's pretty hard. I've got it down to where I can make one that works, but it's not as tight or small as they would like it to be. My filagree came out pretty good. When it came to writing Happy Birthday, Congratulations, and Happy Aniversary, I suck. I write way too big and I haven't wrote in cursive since I was forced to back in Jr. high.

Buttercream is gross. More specifically, American buttercream is gross. It mostly consist of shortening and powdered sugar. It's had to get off your skin and stinks something aweful if it's old. Chef made a big batch at the start of class and we reused it everyday. Towards the end it was overworked and occasionally, I would find hair and chocolate pieces in it. We made different shapes - shells, beads/pearls, and rosettes. I suck at all of those, but I'm getitng better at it.

I'm going to have lot of practice since for Cakes I have to get 100 perfect of each checked off to pass the class. Also, we have to have 25 perfect Happy Birthday, Congrats, and Happy Annivesary in chocolate. And a ton of other stuff.

The last part of this class is slicing fruit. We chopped apples, sliced pears, chiffonade mint, fanned strawberries, and supreme oranges. It was the first time I've ever tasted or made a supremed orange. It's a good way to eat oranges if it's not sweet. Getting rid of the membrane gets rid of most of the bitterness.

Intro to Baking Science

This class was pretty much based all on notes. The better your note taking the better grade. (Chef let us write a study aid for the final) What's in the book is pretty much an overview compared to the notes you get in class. From what I hear, it depends on who you get for a Chef that determinds how much detail you'll get into with the science.

We started out with Sugar. We had to know the difference between a saccaride and a monosaccaride and what would you get if you put a glucose and a galatose together, lactose (milk sugar). We went into the two methods for making caramel and the different grades of sugar and molassas.

The three shapes of protein bonds and the proteins in milk - curds and whey. We also learned about the pasturizing and homogenizing milk.

Chef even told us how to make a "cement mixer." All you need is lime juice and Bailey's Irish Cream. Throw the Bailey's in you mouth and hold it. Then add the lime juice. Shake your head and you'll get some nasty chuncks in your mouth that 's impossible to swallow. I guess Chef is not above pranks.

We talked a little about custards- baked (flan, pumpkin pie, cheesecake) and stirred (pudding, pastry cream, ice cream, lemon curd).

Wheat kernels have three parts - bran, endosperm, and germ. The make-up of flour is mostly protein with a little water and lipids, ash, and cartanoids (pigment).

Chef went into the countries that are the main producers for just about every product used in baking. Luckily, we weren't tested on the years/eras they were discovered or used.

Eggs have 6 parts - shell, albumin (whites), yolk, chalaze, membranes, and air cell.

Talking about gelatin was fun for Chef. She likes gross out things and the process of making gelatin is gross. Isinglass is made from boiled fish, agar is from boiled seaweed, and gelatin is from boiled pig skin, hooves, mouth, ears, and cow bones.

Butter is only about 13% water and the rest is pretty much milk fat.

There are three kinds of leavenders - natural (yeast), chemical (baking soda and baking powder), and air/steam. There are 2 kinds of yeast available - brewer's and baker's. There are three forms of baker's yeast - compressed/cake, dry active, and instant. Baking powder is baking soda with an acid added.

Chef gave us a lot of information on chocolate that we didn't need for the test. Cocoa has a long process that I'm too lazy to type.

Chef went into detail on 8 spices used in baking - cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, mace, anise, cardamon, and vanilla. Did ya know that the US consumes 75% of the vanilla used in the world? But, 90% of that is imitation. None of the spices was on the test, thank goodness. It was a lot of information.

Cakes, Day 1

After three weeks, we finally get to touch an oven. Chef laid down the rules, handed out a few papers, and showed us where everything is in kitchen. Then, he did a demo of what we had to make - Chocolate Decadence and American Buttercream (yuck!).

You have to make sure you're paying attention to the demo which makes it kind of hard since Chef pretty much only talks above a whisper. One of the handouts is a booklet with recipies. On one side there is the mise en place - ingredients, equipment, and time and temp. On the other side is a blank spot where the procedure goes. You have to fill it in yourself.

After Chef's demo, he gave us the option to either stay through lunch to work or not. I went to lunch because I was starving and ended up having to fight for space in the kitchen. There are 34 of us in a space that is built comfortably for 20. Two people were out today and it still felt cramped.

Here's the mise en place for the chocolate decadence:

First Stage:
-5 ouncs water
-6 ouncs sugar

Second Stage:
-6 ounces couverture (811)
-7 ounces cocoa block
-9 ounces butter, soft

Third Stage:
-6 large eggs, room temperature
-3 ounces sugar

Equipment:
-stand up mixer with whip
-bain marie
-spatula
-folding bowl
-9 inch cake pan
-parchment liner
-pan release

Time and Temp:
-300F for 35-45 minutes


With 7 other people sharing the same oven, I had to add another 30 minutes to the baking time. I haven't had a chance to try it since we had to let it sit overnight in the freezer.

More coming

I still want to tell you guys about Intro to Baking Science, Knife and Piping Skills, my weird roommate, the dorms, and how much I'm starving! Oh yeah...and I start Cakes class today. I've been taking pictures so hopefully, I'll have those up for you guys soon.

Safety and Sanitation

My first three weeks comprised of one instructor teaching three subjects to one class over 7 hours a day. The first 2 1/2 hours was devoted to this class. I think if I had anyone other than Chef Renee, I would have been bored out of my mind! She is awesome. Slightly crazy to where you're almost positive she's on drugs, but it's just coffee. If you bring up Rachel Ray from the Food Network, she would get all riled up. Chef hates her with a passion.

This class is for the National Restaurant Association Sanitation certificate. I heard from a lot of people that this was the easiest thing to pass and they're right. It's all pretty much common sense. You should know not to pick your face, nose, or whatever while you're preparing food. You should know that if you have diarrhea that it isn't a good idea to be near food. We did have to know about foodborne illness' for all different kinds of meat, even though we're not going to be working with it. If you don't know how to wash your hands properly, you'll find out here.

Here are some sample test questions and an overview of each chapter:

Chapter One- A basic overview of the whole book.

Question: The three common factors that cause
foodborne illness are
a) contamination, improper use of thermometers,
backflow
b) control points, critical control points, and
critical limits
c) time-temperature abuse, poor personal
hygiene, and cross-contamination
d) potentially hazardous foods, flow of food,
and temperature of food

Chapter Two- Microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, parasites...12 different illnesses caused by bacteria in pretty good detail about symptoms, source, and what food is involved in outbreaks of that illness, and a few viruses. Luckily, the test only had one or two questions on the illnesses.

Question: Bacteria grow especially well in food
that are
a) warm, moist, protein-rich, and low in
acidity
b) cool, dry, low in protein, and high in
acid
c) very hot, wet, calcium-rich, and
neutral
d) cool, dry, and metallic

Chapter Three - Biological toxins, allergens, biological, chemical, and physical contaminants.

Question: What is the most important reason why
you should not store fruit juices in a pewter pitcher?
a) the juice will spoil quickly
b) the juice will not store at proper
temperature
c) acids in the juice can leach the metal into
the juice
d) the juice will absorb a metallic
taste

Chapter Four - Foodhandlers' personal hygiene (don't be nasty!)
Chapter Five - Thermometers and how to use them
Chapter Six - What to do when food comes into your store (put them away)
Chapter Seven - Temperatures food should be stored at - refridgerator, freezer, and dry storage
Chapter Eight - What temps to thaw food at, minimum internal cooking temps, cooling food properly
Chapter Nine - Hot/cold-holding equipment, don't touch food or the inside of dishes with your hands
Chapter Ten - HACCP plan (how to prevent foodborne illnesses)
Chapter Eleven - Don't have dirty equipment at work, flooring, handwashing stations, short look at safe water connections
Chapter Twelve - difference between cleaning and sanitizing, temp warewashing machine should be at, and other boring cleaning supplies
Chapter Thirteen - Pests in your establishment and how to get rid of them
Chapter Fourteen - Food Safety Regulations and Standards - USDA, FDA, CDC, EPA, and NMFS organizations
Chapter Fifteen - Basically what to do as a manager training others in food safety

There were 90 questions total, 10 don't count towards score, after that, you can miss another 15 an still get certified. I should have my results tonight or tomorrow and the certificate comes in about three weeks.

Orientation

I think the B&P (Baking and Pastry) students' orientation was nothing compared to the culinary and HRM (Hotel & Restaurant Managment) students' orientation last Monday.

I complained about waiting in line for 1/2 hour to get my school ID taken and a pair of steel-toe shoes. Since culinary and HRM have a lot of students' start at the same time, they had to wait almost two hours in line. Our Financial Advisors' came up to the tables to look for us, they had to wait in another line.

If I had only known how boring this was going to be, I would have brought a book, magazine or something else to keep me entertained. Three hours of listening to people who you'll probably never see again talk sucks. One guy gets up there and tells us to be selfish, don't make any friends, don't hang out on the weekends, don't say hello, don't be friendly, just be selfish. I thought that was a weird thing to say. The next speaker came up and said that he completely disagrees with him. That was the only entertaining part.

We got to meet our teachers. Actually, we have to call them Chef or Chef with their name attached. ''

At some point, we got up to get our uniforms - 3 chef pants, 5 jackets with our name embroidered, 5 neckercheifs (green for B&P), 5 hats, 25 side towels, 5 aprons, and the shoes we got earlier. Some people got more than what was supposed to be there, some people got less. A lot of people didn't have their names on their jackets. They had to borrow used ones with San Francisco where the name should be. Four weeks into the program, I think most people have new ones now.

Some people got screwed on their schedule - about 20 out of 70. They were told that they had morning class when it was completely full. The school had to ask for volunteers to switch to night. Most of them are (wealthy) girls, live in the dorms, and don't want to have to be out after dark in the Tenderloin. There was only one person that I know of who moved to night classes. The only suggestion for the school's fuck-up was for those students who want mornings to start again during the next program at the end of October.

I never saw any of the people at my orientation table again...

Sorry

I apologize for it taking so long for me to get updates. I finally have a computer and internet hooked up in the dorm. I'll get some updates going tomorrow. I have a lot to talk about and hopefully get some pics uploaded soon. I haven't taken too many because we haven't actually baked anything yet. Monday is the start of cakes class. Yea! I finally get to touch an oven.