A perfect cherry on the top of our sundae, the run-through of our knife practical. Chef Sandra added 8 cuts to the original 4, having us try to do 12 cuts in 30 minutes. And yes, I finished! Most of my classmates did. I wanted to finish earlier, but unfortunately took longer to do a simple task: block a potato. I needed to get three cuts out of a russet potato but because it was longer than fatter, I needed to be choosey about which parts of the potato to use for which cuts.
The good thing, though, is that I blazed through the two tournées of red potato. The tourée is my worst cut, but following the tips given to me by Chef Bruno and the desire to finish all 12 cuts before time was up, I blazed through them and, thankfully, I think they turned out pretty nice. They were, in fact, my best tournées to date.
To change the subject, all week I've been wondering why certain students are attending this school. I'm not going to talk negatively about anyone, as everyone is pretty nice to each other and we all try to help each other out. But some students just don't seem to want to be there. They don't take notes, they talk during lectures, they dismiss rules regarding the uniform... it's a shame really.
Remove the fact that these folks are paying anywhere between $18K to $22K to attend and essentially what you have is a group of people who are learning how to cook professionally by choice. Everyone is choosing to be there yet some students are squandering their time by not making the most of the education they're choosing to get. Granted, the lessons thus far are basic; we're learning the fundamentals of food, food science, methodology, and knife skills. Some students have culinary work experience, some have attended culinary school before, and others just love food. But no matter the background or the amount of existing knowledge of a given student, there's always something to learn from these basic lessons.
I've been teaching drums for about 15 years now and I teach a lot of basics to a lot of students, basics I know like the back of my hand. Yet I still continue to learn basic things, whether it's how to improve my technique, another way of learning something, another way of looking at something, or another way to approach something. I've found similarities between drumline and what I know of the professional kitchen. I know there are also similarities between the craft of drumming - music in general, for that matter - and the craft of cooking. It stands to reason that there's always something fundamental to learn or to improve upon, no matter how much one knows or how technically proficient one is.
I have to wonder how long some of my classmates will last.
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