Demi-Post

Hey everybody!
I don't have too much to report this week. Every day has continued pretty much the same as last week. We continued to to Knife Cut Trays every day. Then we would watch a demo from Chef and start our student production for the day. Some of the things we made this week: Cauliflower gratin, bechamel sauce, mornay sauce, creamed spinach, chicken consomme, hollandaise, mayonnaise, espagnole, jus de veau lie, demi-glace, tomato sauce, pasta, and vinaigrettes.

On Wednesday, we were supposed to get a ton of snow, so the school canceled all afternoon classes. Woo Hoo! Snow Day! I should have spent the day getting ahead on homework, but instead I sat in my room and watched Heathers and some True Blood. I didn't actually snow as much as they thought it would and we could have had class just fine. One of the sad events of Wednesday was that my good friend and classmate Chrissy told us she was going to leave the CIA. It's really pretty sad for us. She is wicked funny and great to be around. The kitchen will not be the same without her.

Because of the snow day, everything that we were supposed to do on Wednesday, we had to do on Thursday in addition to everything that was scheduled for that day. It was kind of nuts. We got it all done and Chef even liked some of my dishes. Friday was our last day of Skills Development I, so we had all of our finals. I got a 12.75/15 on my knife cuts practial. For our cooking practical, I had to make mayonasie by hand, beef consomme brunoise, espangole sauce, demi-glace, boiled broccoli and cauliflower, and hollandaise. We had 2.5 hours. It was great to feel the pressure of lots of production and getting things done well and on time. It was like being back in the restaurant again. I was pretty pleased with how I did. Chef Velie's only critiques were that my consomme was a little oily on top and that my brunoise cuts were off (of course). He also thought my mayo was a little high in acid, not too high, but almost.

At the end of the night, he had an absolute mountain of dishes to clean. I'll try to post some pictures later. after about an hour and a half of cleaning, we had to take our written final. I think I did pretty well. There might be only a few questions that I missed. I got a 100% on the written midterm, so I might have gone into the final a bit too confident.

Friday night, we just hung out with Chrissy for the last time and ate pizza. We said goodbye to her early on Saturday morning. sad. Later that day, I was able to move into the big side of the dorm room because Anthony left for externship. Now I don't have to climb up the side of a bunk bed to go to sleep and I have tons of room to keep all my things. It's glorious.

When I get my final grades, I'll be sure to update you all. Skills II starts Tuesday. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got a job as a Tour Guide through the school's Hospitality Office and I start training on Tuesday morning. If you know me, you know how stupid excited I am about being a tour guide...