Today was my first day of class, and it scared me half to death. The chefs, one of whom is Chef Katie from Top Chef, made us:
- concasse a tomato
- brunois a carrot
- supreme an orange
- brunois the orange peel
- tourne an apple
- julienne an onion — this included cutting and scraping every single peel until they were all of uniform depth
- small dice a large baking potato
…in forty five minutes. Needless to say, I did not make it happen. I dropped so many things from nervousness that at one point the chefs probably wondered if I thought the task at hand was actually to decorate the floor with organic matter. The whole exercise was a scary wake up call that I need to practice more seriously at home.
In addition to writing my recipes for tomorrow, I have to find an economical place to get my knives sharpened. I also have to buy an outfit for when I work front of house, find and write recipes, organize my binder, and learn how to tie a tie. Somehow I’m 31 an still have no idea how to do that. (We have to wear a tie when we’re working front of house.)
It was just plain scary, although I feel sure that I will learn more in this class than in any other.
While I was sweating nervous bullets at class, Abe was home having an Elsa dress dance party with the girls.
