Week 1

Woo!
I am finally actualizing my dream! Pastry school here I am!!! Wrap me up around your pretty little finger and I'll wrap you up in my flabby arms! 

It has been a dream of mine for the past 10 years to go to Culinary school! When I was a senior in high school I applied to culinary programs and got into a few of them. I was sort of talked out of it, and I was also too scared to go for it. I guess I wasn't ready.... NOW I AM!!!

So, after gathering up all of my courage, I found a school... I applied... I got accepted.... and here I am! In school for Pastry Arts!

It's a part time program at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. So, this term I have 3 classes. I've got Intro to Cooking Techniques, Intro to Baking, and Retail Pastry Production...

I guess I'll start off with a little intro of each class and write about my first week at school!


Intro to Cooking Techniques
Well, when I signed up for this class I thought it'd be a basic intro class to knife skills and other culinary basics. It turns out that it's a class on basic cooking techniques.... okay... I'm not doing a good job describing this class.. I guess I'll just tell you how the first class went!

So, this class was my first class ever in culinary school!! I was told that I would be the only freshman in the course, stuck with 3-5 term students (there are 3, 10 week terms per year), you can imagine how nervous I was! In this class I was going in circles.

Chef started the class out with introducing himself and telling us what we'd be learning in class. Going over the syllabus and what not. Then, bam! Chef went into what we were going to cook that night. I was terrified! Well, no, at first I was just really nervous and excited! I couldn't wait to learn all that I was going to learn this term! So he does a quick demo of what we were going to cook that night. Our main lesson that night was to learn Dry Cooking Methods.

Once he was done his demo he left it to us to do the same! There are only 6 of us in the class so we paired up... I automatically felt bad for the person I was paired up with because I was terrified for real and had no idea what to do, where things were, how things went, what the process was. I was turning in circles!

So, my partner and I made Pork Loins (well I made the pork, she doesn't eat pork, so she used the same recipe and substituted Pork with eggplant), Cornish Hen, and Apple Beignets! So, while I was turning in circles and freaking out in my head I also tried to remain calm and asked Chef some questions. This one classmate was really nice and told me that I'd be okay and my partner was really nice and patient with me!

This class was a 3 hr class from 7-10pm... my did it go by fast!! After this class I was ecstatic! I was on a natural high! It was amazing!! Oh! I forgot to mention how I sliced my thumb! This knive set I got at school is amazing!!! So the knife I used was super sharp but so super smoooth!!! I sliced my thumb and didn't even feel it until the blood came gushing out! :) haha

So next class we learn Wet cooking methods! Can't wait to share with you how that class went! And! By the way! The best thing about this class is that we get to eat what we cook! So I've got kick ass dinner on Wednesday nights in this term!


I've written a lot in this post! Hopefully tomorrow I'll write about Intro to Baking and Retail Pastry Production!

Until next time! Enjoy your food!!!