Pride cometh before a fall........
I fell.....oh boy... I fell
My first class in Culinary Desserts was, I thought, going to be a gentle introduction to the industrial kitchen. It would be gentle because I would be learning how to pipe icing, something I have been doing for years.
HAHAHA
My happy dream of a simple class began to dissolve on the bus when , to my horror, I realized I had forgotten all my notes and that day's recipe at home, on the dining room table. After calling my daughter to look up the phone number for the college, I tried to contact the school. My multiple attempts (apparently everyone at college had left their notes on the dining room table as well - joke ), were rewarded when a kind person told me I could go to the library a block away from my school and use the computers there.
These are city blocks.....big blocks.
I had not allowed time for this but, thanks to bus schedules, I did have a half hour of extra time.
These are city blocks.....big blocks.
I had not allowed time for this but, thanks to bus schedules, I did have a half hour of extra time.
So I ran......found the library......and had someone translate the workings of a PC to me ( I have a mac). I then got my notes and ran to class.
So what if everyone had nice, plastic covered notes in nice neat binders, and I had a sheet of paper and a pen. I had my nice neat binder too, ...at home,... on my nice neat dining room table. I could bounce back! With my head held high I went into class where I picked a station directly in front of the Chef, because my dad always said to sit at the front of the class........ note the hint of coming doom. Then I began to set up my equipment and measure my supplies.
This is when I realized that my new scale, was quite a bit smaller than the bowl I needed to measure my sugar in.
Seriously.....I put the bowl on my cute little digital scale...and completely lost the scale. My brain knew it was there.... but my eyes couldn't see it. It was only when I bent down and looked under my bowl that I noticed a tiny shape peeping out under the bowl's base. My scale was barely readable in the shade under the bowl..... and I needed to read it to measure all my ingredients.
I did it...... it took me a bit longer..... but I did it. I ended up crouched under my bowl, peering and squinting like someone who has lost their keys, under the car in the dark. I had everything measured except for my icing sugar, which was half measured .....catch the next hint of coming doom, when Chef called us up to the front for the demo to explain the class.
When I got back from the table to finish measuring my sugar I noticed someone had bumped my bowl off the scale. This meant I would have to remeasure and sift two and a half kilos of icing sugar again......and I only had one large bowl.
This is when it gets painful, feel free to look away if you don't wish to see the next part.....
Because of the sifter's large size and the smaller bowls I was now forced to use, the icing sugar went into the bowls.....and onto the counter...and onto our notes......and onto our tools....and onto the floor.
We ended up with five small bowls on our table and two large bowls....... I think at this point we were trying to find comfort in large numbers. The sifter was designed for the large bowl, because no one would try to sift 2.5 kilos into 5 small bowls, .....except us! We had a snow storm in May at our station.
Did I mention we get marked on our organizational abilities and neatness of our work area? Don't forget I am sitting directly in front of the Chef.....
The rest of the class was uneventful. I saw, I came, I piped....she said I had a good technique....she is kind.
Next week will be better :)
Cheers,
Christine
