i'm back

I haven't posted for far longer than I care to admit, but I have an explanation. I just started the Baking and Pastry program at CIA at Greystone. During the week I live in St. Helena in a DORM. Eeeek! Thankfully, I have a single room with my own bathroom. The dorm experience deserves a post all on it's own so more on that later.

I am taking two classes, Culinary Math and Baking Science. Class begins bright and early at 7:30 AM(originally they were scheduled for 7AM, but my instructor thought that time was a little "uncivilized", note that she is not a Chef!). We are required to take shuttles to class from the dorms so that means I have to be dressed "professionally" and ready to go by 6:45 AM at the latest if I want to catch a quick breakfast. The next shuttle doesn't come till 7:15 AM so that means no breakfast and possibly being late for class, which they made clear the first day is a big faux pas. So, if you are doing the math, you might have already guessed that my alarm rings at 5:30 AM. For most that's an ungodly hour, but surprisingly I spring out of bed without much fuss.

Back to the classes. I have Culinary Math from 7:30 - 10:00 AM. Relatively unexciting except for the first day of class when one of the Chefs walked into the class and slammed a razor in front of one of the guys and yelled at him for his unacceptable appearance and ordered him to shave immediately. Men are required to be clean shaven and this guy was only 19 years old so he didn't exactly have a lot of facial hair to begin with. That didn't save him and another guy from this Chef's scrutiny. That Chef is infamous for policing students and barking at those who do not meet the very stringent dress and appearance code. Yikes! Which basically means you can't just roll out of bed. Clothes can't be wrinkled, hair unkempt or ID missing. It sounds militant but the purpose of the dress code is to instill students with a sense of professionalism. Historically, the image of the Chef has sometimes been equated with the ruddy, red nosed drunk whose speech is laced with profanities. The CIA aims to change that image with each generation of students.

Culinary Math is followed by Baking Science from 10:00 AM till 1:30 PM with the esteemed Chef Jorin. He has an impressive number of titles after his name and a winning turn at the World Bread Baking Championships in France. It's a tad intimidating when I think of his accomplishments, but he bears a slight resemblance and similar temperament to kooky Chef from the Muppets so that makes him accessible and entertaining. The class covers the scientific underpinnings of baking through readings and kitchen experiments. We made our own butter, ricotta, marscapone, and buttermilk today. Yum!

Here's a link to my classes. If you want to see the nitty gritty of my schedule.

The classes have a ton of reading and homework so my posts may be a little sporadic, but bear with me and I will divulge the inner workings of the CIA in subsequent posts.

Thanks RDR. I needed a little nudge to get back into it.