Days 25-30 Catching Up with Ya!

Sorry for the long break. Last week was a very emotional week with a lot of introspection but I'm happy to say I'm back on track and cooking better than ever. In a nutshell, this is what happened...

Day 25 (which was a Friday) was basically a lot more recap and I did just fine. Then on Saturday I volunteered to help out catering an event. This was the worst 6 and a half hours for me in this millenium. And those of you who know what I went through when I shattered my arm in 2004 will fully understand my meaning.

I won't go into too many details but this is a well respected catering company. They served horrible over-cooked/burnt food to 800 guests. The kitchen was disgusting, dangerous and unhealthy. I'm pretty sure if the health inspectors had visited, they would have closed the place down. Two of the senior chef and one of the junior chefs were riding me the entire time. I guess the volunteers were there solely to give the chefs a medium to vent their frustrations upon and not there to learn anything or help out. I worked my butt off for 6.5 hours and still felt like I was in the way the entire time.

So when I arrived at school on Day 26 (the first day of finals) my mind was racing with questions about my culinary future. Is this something I can do and do I really want to? The entire finals week I contemplated giving up. I talked to my counselor, chefs and friends and explained the situation and everyone told me to hang in there. One chef told me that this catering company was reknown for this type of behavior and mediocre food and to not let it get me down. But I knew at the end of finals week which is the end of the first semester, it was the perfect time to take a break from school if I was going to do it.

So I muddled through finals week with less enthusiasm than I had through the first 5 weeks. Some of the dishes came out terrible. I got a 60/100 on my burnt French Onion Soup and got a 75/100 on my Mashed Potatoes because I forgot to season them and there was a piece of carrot in it. I screwed up Mashed Potatoes! Geez! But other dishes shined. I got 100/100 on my Clam Chowder, Crepes Suzette, my Omelettes and pretty good scores on the other dishes. I ended the first semester and finals with an A. I was really happy with that. That gave me a lot of positive energy and gave me a lot to think about over the weekend.