That's Bon-Bon Cougar to you

A cooking station shared by 4 students

A final dish Veal marsala, hash browns and green beans.

The assistant Chef Sean (It's ok to admire the hotness, most of the straight ladies and the bent boys do)

Chef Dan being goofy

It has come to my attention that I haven't really written about school recently. So here we go with a probably VERY long entry.

After finishing the first round of classes we were off to Food Science and Hospitality Math. Frankly they didn't really lend themselves to much writing. Food Science was neat (and as a bonus, I have a 2 year old who can use syneresis in a sentence) but taught by Chef Steve who seems perpetually grumpy. Hospitality Math was a chore to sit through and taught by a Chef who actually uttered the phrase, "There are no right and wrong answers in this class." Too painful to voluntarily relive it by blogging about it.

Then we were on to Foundations II, taught by Chef Dan and his assistant Chef Sean. WAY too busy to type then. Six weeks to start at Stocks and Sauces, make our way through soups, grains, starches, vegetables, eggs, salads and wind up learning how to cook 4-5 proteins.

Along the way I have managed to get to know some of my classmates better. Maria, the lawyer from Venezuela is indeed very interesting. She has some family roots in the Louisiana area and has been in and out of the south a lot. Richard is a fellow refugee of the financial world, but he is decidedly anti-corporations these days. He is possibly the most unconventional of the group (as far as I can tell so far), since he spends some of his nights and weekends with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence doing some charity work and some partying. We have some overindulged 20 year old kids who are disrespectful to the chefs and slack off at the class clean up chores. One of them is often referred to as "Rick the Dick" by the older students. Mostly people want to smack them. Another 20 year old, Jordan, is definitely the class clown. Always quick with a joke and friendly to everyone he cracks me up because he is always running around singing songs that he only knows 2-10 words of. The same 5 words over and over again. Luckily for him this is a bit endearing instead of annoying like it should be. I have started to think of him kind of like a little brother or a former babysitting charge. That is that I like to help him when I can, which has a couple of the idiot boys thinking that I am interested in him. (Can you imagine me as a cougar....HA!)

The class has been filled with some good and bad moments for me. The day we did our soup test I burned my chowder, over boiled my consomme and cut myself pretty well. When the chef came over to offer a word of encouragement, he said "It's not like it is the worst day in your life." I teared up, he looked paniced and was searching for an escape, everyone at the table started to ask if they could help....all in all I wanted to hide under the table for being so thin skinned. But the hard days have been offset by some serious wins. I got a perfect score on Egg Day which is reportedly one of the hardest tests and my belief that I am generally a pretty darn good cook as been proven out.....even if I need to add more salt to everything according to the chef.

Which brings us to some lessons learned so far in culinary school.....

1. You really don't want to know how much fat and salt is in that restaurant food you are eating. I routinely add 1/2 a cup or more of salt to my food and I am told it is "lacking some seasoning." And even the vegetables are cooked in bacon fat or butter.

2. Dishes come and dishes go, it is no use bitching and whining about it when it is your turn to do them.

3. Everyone overestimates how much they clean up after themselves. (Even me) Don't fool yourself, and try to realize that you really did contribute to it. SO get moving to help clean it up.

4. If you don't help clean, everyone who is helping will notice, and hate you. (They may even make jokes about you sitting around eating bon-bons.)

5. There is no use crying over spilled milk, or burnt soup. Take a deep breath, clear your board and start over again.

6. It's just food after all!