Cooking School Days 4 and 5

I missed the report on day 4 because I was so so tired.

The highlights:

- Lecture on cooking terminology

- Knife cuts - pommes pont neuf, pommes frites, matchstick, brunoise, small dice, medium dice, and large dice. My god, do I need to practice. My routine has been to walk home and pick up some of whatever it was that we cut in class that day and practice at home the following morning. Practice, practice, practice. I hate not being good at something, but, knife work is all about practice, and no-one is good at it right away. (But damn - do I wish that I had been practicing all these years and not just making "close enough" cuts)

- I cut myself. Twice! Which was a good thing. I am afraid of cutting myself. No-one wants to cut themselves, but I am afraid of cutting myself to the point of distraction. Which is weird, because I am not afraid of cutting myself at home, at all. And further - I have practically no nerve endings! I have an extremely high pain tolerance, and very little actually hurts me.

But at school I am really afraid of cutting myself. (hmmmm - possible that all of my anxiety about not being good enough is being focused on fear of cutting myself? uh-huh.) So I cut myself, twice, within about 2 minutes. When you cut yourself you are required to report the chef instructor immediately so that s/he can inspect your wound and dress as appropriate. So, not only did I cut myself, I had to tell my instructor that I had cut myself, twice. The third time I needed to speak to her in class, I started with "Chef, I didn't cut myself!" and she laughed.

Day 5.

- Lecture on the Brigade System and some chat about career paths and financial compensation. (Short version - don't rush to become a chef, and expect to not make a big whack of money)

- More knife cuts. Julienne, Zesting, and Turning. Turning is very difficult, and incredibly wasteful, but if you do it right you end up with a fancy little football shaped thingy, which actually looks pretty cool. I, at present do not exactly do it right. Again with the practice.

- I did not cut myself. Not even once.

I said I wanted to do something physical. This is physical. I am tired when I get home at night. Tired in a good way, like after a good workout. My body aches a little bit, but mostly it just feels warm and used.

So, that's week one.