First day of class

So yesterday was my first day of class and it was pretty great!  It started with us getting more stuff - like an early Christmas haha!  We got 4 aprons, 8 towels, a calculator, and our "kit".  This is the kit below, it has spatulas, knives, a sharpening tool, shears, measuring spoons, measuring cups, and it all fits together in a little bag to carry!

 

Well, let me back up a bit.  To start off, I got in my uniform and as you can see, the arms are a bit long as are the legs.  Okay, not just a bit, they are flat out long!  I will probably end up hemming up the pants over the holidays because after one day of classes, I am already tired of folding them up to walk to and from class.  The daily uniform pretty much consists of the hat (so I don't have to wear a hairnet), the jacket, the pants, shoes that can withstand 400 degree oil being poured on them (a quote from the head of the department!), no jewelry except for a watch, an apron, a towel, and my kit.  

The hat.

The logo on my jacket.

The "uniform".

Ta da!

So back to the first day of class.  So after we got all our "stuff" we got a tour of the stock room, the big freezer, the kitchens, and the restaurant.  Then we went back to the classroom for our lecture.  We got our syllabus, a big recipe packet, and a check off sheet of what we should be able to "do" by the end of this term.  We heard about some of our big projects coming up: a menu project, a wedding cake, make our own flavor of ice cream (so if anyone has a flavor they always thought would be tasty, let me know and ill try making it for you!), and a big chocolate piece to name a few.  We will pretty much be split into four groups every day - the bread group (who starts making breads for the dinner hour at the restaurant), the prep group (who starts prepping desserts for the restaurant), the service group (who helps the restaurant finish getting the desserts and bread baskets out to be served), and the special group (who I think will just be working on whatever task we were shown during the demo that day).  Then we kind of reviewed half of our homework chapter on bakeshop math and today we'll finish the review on food sanitation.  After our break, we went into our kitchen and broke up into groups of four and started prepping the breads for today's baking.  My group was a girl named Tessa, a girl named Natalie, and a girl named Hannah and we were scaling out mix for biscuits and corn muffins.  

After that was all done, we watched Chef Hall demo making some of the yeast breads for today as well.  He made dough for a butter braid, wheat dinner rolls, and sourdough bread.  While Chef Hall was telling us the differences in breads and the ways it mixes together, our other instructor Chef Hammericksen (called Chef Hammer) came in and told us she made us veggie lasagna, so she started warming that up for us.  Chef Hall then continued on with the discussions of breads and while he was talking a girl in the class passed out.  She was standing across the circle from me and just seemed to lean back on the table (which has wheels on it) and it rolled out behind her and she fell to the ground, hitting her head.  I think it was more than a fainting spell, but she woke up real quick and declined an ambulance though if it was me I would have taken it.  It was pretty scary seeing her just go down like that, but she said she was okay and continued with the rest of the class.  She joked that it was sure a way to get noticed the first day of class.

We then got a break while the girl was checked out and when we came back we got to eat the lasagna which was delicious and right at the perfect time for dinner.  I heard something about maybe having chili or pizza later this week too, yummy!  After eating, we learned how to roll dinner rolls to make them perfectly smooth on top for a good presentation.  We all got to practice making the rolls for today's dinner and then moved on to the sourdough bread.  We learned the correct technique to load it into the loaf pans for it to proof overnight.  After that, Chef Hall showed us how to make a 2 strand and 5 strand braid.  He had given us a sheet with a diagram on it for a few different strand braids and the 2 strand is fairly simple.  The 5 strand is a little more complicated and it was pretty funny when even Chef Hall messed up on it (it wasn't all braided together in the end).  We then did the last of the dishes and got out a bit early since the restaurant wasn't open so we didn't have to finish getting desserts ready to go out late. 

The walk back was okay.  I yet again had a much fuller backpack then planned, but I think that was the last of all our "stuff" that we have to be given.  Oh except for a thermometer and I think I can handle that.  The amount of stuff isn't really that big of a deal, but the walk up the hills (why did I choose to live so high up in this hilly city???) is killing my calves.  I worked out the last two days at Curves and that was okay, I will get on the smart equipment this saturday, but I skipped my workout this morning because my calves were just killing me when I woke up.  I hope the more I make the walk the better it'll be though.

And so I am off to my second day of class - we'll see what fun happens today!