Day 22 – The Reviews Continue…

Well tonight we just did recipes over that we’ve already done. This is because they will be on our final exam.

Tonight was French Onion Soup, Cream of Tomato Soup (Bechamel based), Crepes Suzette and Pasta Dough.

Our exams next week will consist of preparing X amount of recipes, herb identification, spice identification, equipment identification and a writing exam. That is day 1 and we have 5 days of testing (cringes under her desk).

Nothing too exciting except the ‘air’ was different. Since there was no communication from the Chefs, as we had done these and didn’t need to see another demo, the mood was very focused. Hardly any chatter going on, just everyone turning out their dishes.

Prior to cooking, the Education Director came in and asked us the review the Chef Instructors. Concerns were raised as to what would be done with the reviews once we turned them in. Would the chefs actually read them? What if the comments weren’t good, how would we know if they didn’t take it personally and lower a grade? Even though our names were not on the review, our handwriting was and could be recognized. Let’s just say this was the most heated part of the evening. The Chefs left the kitchen and the chatter started – “What did you put down for question 3? I gave her a 1, she was awful at that.” And so on from there. It must the change in seasons, the fact that we’re so close to the end of session 1 and the fact we have a weeks worth of finals coming, that has everyone right at the very edge of insanity.

As you have read in my previous posts we’ve had a problem with dishes. Well mainly people doing them. Took 5 weeks and all the other stress involved that finally people are being called to the mat. One student took his dishes over and saw a mess of them in the rinse sink and yelled out “If you have your dishes done don’t leave them in the rinse sink! Get over here and put them away!” Yeah … we probably should have done that on week 2.

At the end of the evening we each have our assigned tasks. One of the student’s tasks that evening was to combine all the left over ingredients and put them away, which he got started on right away. As he opened the ‘box’ that contains everything he saw the mess in which people just threw their extras into. He commented out loud (but not yelling in any way) “What the hell?” and Chef Knight exploded “You will not use that language in my class. That is disrespectful and immature!” I was actually aghast at her comment. I mean he didn’t yell it, and yet the other chef drops the F Bomb at least 3 times a night. And she’s the professional. I think everyone was shocked at that because it got really, really quite and everyone was looking at each other shrugging their shoulders mouthing “I don’t know…?”

Tomorrow will be interesting. More recipe reviews, the big question of “Did the Chefs read the reviews?” and what will the mood be like? All this and more tomorrow on - Loves Cooking Blog! We now return you to your regularly scheduled web browsing.