Day 29 – I’m being stalked by Eggs!

Well today was our egg final. Eggs very fast things to cook. Eggs are also very easy to screw up because they cook so fast. So tonight we had to present a French Omelet and a Western Omelet. Scrambled eggs, along with a hard boiled and soft boiled egg. Then we got to prepare Eggs Florentine but we 86 the spinach. I guess there are still some concerns over e coli. But then I guess they didn’t read the articles that it was it bagged organic spinach that was contaminated. Perhaps they were going for “better safe than sorry”. However the chefs did not taste test one egg dish. It’s their rule not to in order to avoid salmonella. And I think back to the scare of 2005 and green onions containing hepatitis. It’s a wonder they taste anything at all.

Along with all the egg dishes we also prepared 2 quiches. But again no spinach so we substituted the spinach with chopped asparagus, and also made quiche Lorraine. (I sometimes wonder who Lorraine was and why she liked this egg custard with bacon. I’m sure she didn’t understand about cholesterol or saturated fats.)

Last for the evening was Crepes Suzette. Well at least I know who Suzette was and how she came to be eating the crepes. One student who flambéed their crepes got a lot more than they bargained on. The recipe called for 3 oz of orange juice and 1 oz orange liqueur and they reversed it. I think the student next to them, well I’m hopeful their arm hair will grow back evenly.

Excitement for the evening – On one of the stations that wasn’t being used is where we take the contents of our box for the evening and pull everything out and put in easy reach for all. One particular item included a crate of eggs. (I guess they already figured out that these are things we go through quickly) Holding the eggs is the typical cardboard holder. Each one of these holders holds about 36 eggs. Well as students were using the eggs the lift the cardboard and put it into the trash and continue gathering eggs. I should mention here the station where all these items are laid out has a big stove between them. And this stove has 12 burners. 12 burners all with pilot lights lit. Seeing the picture? Yep seems some yahoo took the last egg and put the CARDBOARD holder on top of the stove, with the lit pilot lights….Those suckers can burn! Luckily no injuries. The students that were in front of it smelled it first, turned and saw the flames and calmly pulled it off the stove with tongs and stomped the fire out.

Drama for the evening – We’ve been having a dish problem. Yeah won’t rehash that. Well 2 of the biggest problem children were told today they would not be passed and going on to phase 2. One of them got really mad and picked up his knives and walked out. Leaving everything on the stove cooking. The other guy just shrugged and then went back to cleaning a stove. Then he went over and cooked 2 eggs. That was all he cooked for the evening. I’m really curious if he understands what he was told because it sure didn’t appear like it registered with him.

2 students went and spoke with the director about how the class was going and they feel one of the chef instructors in inept. Well as you recall earlier we were each asked to evaluate the instructors. The concern was raised then about how it would be presented to the instructors. Would they read them or would the information be typed up so the chef wouldn’t recognize the handwriting? We were told the information would be assimilated and reviewed the substance would conveyed. Well HOLD THE PHONE here folks. Seems the information was conveyed, but the Chef actually read the reviews and did in fact recognize the handwriting and called a few of the students out on what was said. Talk about unprofessional. So this chef called out one student and said “So I saw you wrote some pretty nasty things about me.” What was the student suppose to say at this point? He was so shocked. Well later on I asked this chef what class she would be teaching next term. She indicated the newbies again. I said “That’s cool you can snap the newbies into shape” and laughed it off. She looked at me and said “ well it would seem some didn’t appreciate my technique.” I said “Well it’s like you’re always telling us. There is always room for improvement no matter how good we think we are.” I think she was a little put off by my comment. She looked me dead in the eye and said “What did you say on the review?” I told her “If you’d like to discuss I would be happy to. But this was neither the time nor place. I’d like you to keep in mine that when they asked for a professional review that is what I gave. They did not ask us for a personality review. Perhaps then things would be different. But the minute you take a professional review and make it personal you stop learning. So if you’d like to talk about I’ll be happy to stay after class and discuss it.” She just shook her head and said “No…never mind.” I’m not sure why she didn’t want to talk about after that. I had actually hoped she would. Because maybe then I could explain why people thought the things they did.

What a night! Monday is our last night of finals and our exit exams with the Chefs. I really wish that had been Friday night so we could have had the weekend to mentally prepare for the next session. I still cannot believe that 6 weeks has already past by!

Until Monday!