The Day of Defeat

"If you live on doughnuts, rest assured, you will not do well."-- C. Din

Well, just so everyone knows, the culinary honeymoon is officially over.

I still love it, of course, but yesterday was probably the worst day that I've had for a very long time.

Yesterday was the day that I started with Chef Tony.

The day began with taking a cookie inventory.

If I had to decide the worst job ever, it would be inventory. Any inventory. It is the single most torturous job that anyone one person can endure. Within Culinary, I suppose.

I should've known then that the rest of the day wasn't going to get much better.

After I had counted 1,519 thumb-print, jam-filled, cookies, Chef Tony told me to find a recipe for Raspberry Swirl Brownies. I then searched his clandestine-labeled index, and combed through the entire folder, twice, I told him I couldn't find it.

Of course.

Five minutes later, he came out into the kitchen, and hands me a recipe, and told me to get started.

I took the recipe, and looked down at it.

There wasn't a word of direction.

So I started by gathering my ingredients, which took way longer than expected. I guess you can't really ask much of a kitchen full of students, who half the time don't even know what they're doing.

Whatever.

Finally got started, and Chef Tony came over to see where I was at.

So we were talking, and I went to grab the flour, and poured it into my mixer... before I finished with my liquid ingredients.

The product was the stickiest, chocolatiest, gooiest, lumpiest, mess that I had ever seen.

Aubry Gross was not a happy cook.

Chef Tony told me to still use it, and that it would be ok.

I finished making them, and set the pans aside to be baked. I then realized what a mess I had made. My uniform was trashed, my station was in complete tumult, and the bell was ringing.

What the heck.

I cleaned up my station, and got dressed, and left in a foul mood.

It didn't help that that ridiculous Christmas song "Feliz Navidad" was on the radio when I got into the car. For the second time that day.

Really?

When I got home, I attempted to write a quick blog to all of you, but I was in such emotional duress, that I didn't get much done before I had to go and get a ROOT CANAL.

By the time that we finally got to the doctor's office, I was asking for the lethal injection.

Ugh, it pains me to even think about it...

Thanks for reading.

Rolling...

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." --J. R. R. Tolkien

On the whole, a good day.

It started out with putting chicken on a stick, which is harder than it sounds.

What I had to do was to take pieces of sliced chicken breast and thread them through a long bamboo skewer. Now if they had been chicken tenders, it would've been easier, because they're thicker. But hey, you work with what you've got.

After I did a couple, though, I got the hang of it, and just started banging 'em out.

Between four of us, we did about 200.

When we finished, I put them in the cooler, and did some other odd jobs, and cleaned up. Chef Dave then had me help another student bag sliced ham.

After I finished ( the other kid had to leave), I kind of just stood around until one of my buddies needed some help on a recipe. He needed me to strain some sauce, and while I was doing this, Chef Dave came over to talk to me.

He asked if Chef Tony was talking to me about Skills USA, and he told me a little more about the competition, and told me about when he had done it in high school. He said that he thought I did really good work. He also said that he wanted to teach me how to cut up a whole chicken (a second year student assignment), and sort of "see whatcha got," type of deal.

"Sounds great!" I said.

I finished straining the sauce, and Chef Dave came over and gave Josh and I some concentrated actual teaching with the recipe we were doing. It was really cool and fun.

Yeah, It was a really great day.

Thanks for reading.

"Like a G"

"Man is born to eat." -- Craig Claiborne

Sorry it's been a while. Most of what I have to write about happened on Friday, but I neglected to blog.

What the heck kind of logic is that?!

Anyway. Not much happened on Friday until about 20 minutes before I left school. Chef Tony approached me and asked if I would like to join a team that he was organizing to work directly under his direction. He said that we would be doing a lot of baking for Thanksgiving and other holidays.

He also wanted me to compete in a nationwide competition called Skills USA, which is kind of a big deal.

On Monday, I told him that I would like to accept.

I thought he would've wanted me to start immediately, but he told me that he wanted to wait for a little bit. "Maybe next week,"

"Great," I thought. I was pretty sure that I had blown my chances. Maybe if I had accepted right away, I would've had better luck.

I can pretty much only trust that he really does want me to join him, and that he'll come for me when the time is right.

Until then, I'm with Chef Dave. Today I made mushroom pilaf, and helped with making the twice-baked potatoes. I also washed pots and pans as well.

Maybe hoping for a little extra credit?

Maybe?

Please?

For anyone who hasn't had twice-baked potatoes, you have no idea what you are missing.

DEE-LISH.

So now, there's just the wait....

I don't exactly know when it is that I'll be starting with Chef Tony, but you guys will certainly get an earful when I do.

Thanks for reading. :]

For the Love of Coconut.

"...cassoulette, like life itself, is not so easy as it seems." --Paula Wolfert.

Day one in Hot Foods.
Hooraayyy!!!
What I've been waiting for the ENTIRE TIMMEE!!!

I came into the kitchen, and practically skipped to Chef Dave, and asked what he wanted me to do.
He then assigned me to collect 25 carrots. To peel, and slice. Most of you are probably like "Wow, this girl is nuts." or "What a fruitcake." but I love it.

After I had taken care of the carrots, I helped one of the other students assemble Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches.
GOOD STUFF.

After I had done this, A-shift was gone.
Nothing against A-shift.
Heck I think they're great, but after they leave, there's much more room in the kitchen, and it's easier to figure out from the teachers what they need.

SPEAKING OF WHICH... Chef Dave is officially the absolute hardest person to get directions from. Granted, he does run more than one station, but yeah. That was probably the thing that was the hardest to adapt to today.

ANYWAY, after A-shift left, I was assigned to fry the coconut chicken.

To be completely honest, I ruled the fryer today. Chef Dave told me what they were supposed to look like, and I made them.
Sublime.

Also, I have to tell you all. On Monday night, for Michelle-My-Belle's birthday, we went to Michael Symon's restaurant, Roast, in Detroit. I would highly recommend. I had the Beef Cheek Pierogi and the Roast Chop Salad. Very, Very, Good.

Sorry that I seem kind of like a kid in a candy store, but I pretty much am. XD

Thanks for reading everyone. <3

PTC

'There is no more appealing sight on earth than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone that she loves." --Thomas Wolf

It's that time of year again. The time that every student with s reputation at stake dreads. Parent-teacher conferences.
My mother attended a conference with Chef Tony on Thursday night. She offered to take me with her, but I declined as graciously as I could.
>She was running a little late at work, so she left from there straight to the school, then I met her at Bible study later.
I think it would be safe to say that I was fairly nervous.
When Michelle and I arrived at Bible study, and my mom was already there.
It was a sign. Whether good or bad, I couldn't tell.
As nonchalantly as I could muster, I asked her what he said.
Essentially, Chef Tony said that he really likes my work. He said that I was doing really well. My mom told him that I was really enjoying the class, but I was looking for more of a challenge, and that I had some experience under my belt.
Well, he definitely took those pieces of information under advisement.
When I came in on Friday morning, Chef Tony called me over.
"Aubry, as soon as you wash up, you're with me."
SCORE. Way to put in a good word for me, Mumsy.
What he had me do first was decorate some orange-glazed cookies with white and milk chocolate.I must say, they looked pretty darn good when I was done. Just sayin'.
After I finished this, he taught me how to make his signature pumpkin cheesecake.DEELISH!!! Not to mention, gorgeous.
Hope I'm ready for whatever's in store for Tuesday!!! Thanks for reading. <3

Creme de la Creme

"I am not a glutton, I am an explorer of food." --Julia Child

Well, as you can probably tell from my lack of bloggage, I haven't been at school for the past two days. I was stuck at home with a harrowing toothache. It started over the weekend, and carried over the beginning of the week. I was able to get to the dentist yesterday, and got some answers.

I was happy to be at school again today, though. I was getting pretty bored at home, so I was ready for some pastry ballgame.

Chef Mary was also glad that I was back, and put me to work pretty much at once.
She had me whip a quart of cream and then fold it into some Bavarian cream.

Just a clarifier.

Bavarian cream is pretty much the butter of the gods. And once it's mixed with whipped cream... GAME OVER.

After the creams were combined, Ashley piped it onto eclaires that I had cut. To be completely honest, they were pretty gorgeous. I envied those who were going to eat them.

Ashley and I went on break to stew about the coveted pastries.

We came back to find MORE cream.

Coconut cream.

Like a balmy island getaway.

PLEASE.

This cream was left over from coconut cream pies that Chef Tony made, and Chef Mary decided that we needed to get rid of it.

Someday, I hope that I'm as objective about as she is about food. *sigh*

We paired the left-over cream with a pineapple up-side-down cake.

Can you say divine.

All you need is a beautiful Hawaiian in a grass skirt to come and deliver it to you. It'd be a done deal.

By the time I was done piping the coconut onto the cakes, it was past time for me to go and get dressed. I farewelled the cakes and eclaires, and left.

Thanks everyone, for reading. :]

Love you.

Endless Boxes...

"A cookbook is only as good as it's worst recipe." --Julia Child

I'm sure it would be safe to say that I have spent a considerable amount of time in the back store room at school.

Some days it's rotating stock, today it was organizing boxes.

Oddly enough, I was happy to do the job.

Chef Mary took me aside, and asked me to do it. She said that one of her reasons for asking me was because she knew that she wouldn't have to "hold my hand". Trying not to let that go to my head. :]

Of course, that particular chore sounds more glamorous (well, as glamorous as pantry work can be.) than it really was. I spent the better part of about an hour and a half trying to find a home for each of the boxes. Rather tedious work.

But I had a considerable amount of visitors, which made the job a little bit better. Some of them needed help finding the coarse sugar, or ginger, which gave me a break every once in a while.

When I finally got finished sorting the plethora of boxes, I went into the kitchen, and Chef Tony asked me to help another student make some doughnut holes.

She had the port-a-fryer hooked up in the classroom on the counter. Kinda weird. =/

My job was to take the freshly-fried dough, and roll it in either cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.

We made A TON. Chef Tony said that they were a practice for when we had to make 8,000 of them next week.

HOLY COW. That's a lot of freaking doughnuts.

So, that was my Thursday. Thanks for reading. <3