survived my first day!

Well I was VERY nervous the night before and hardly slept at all, but I made it through my first day of classes yesterday!  Mondays are my longest day of class as well as my hands-on baking day, which means.... super awesome uniform!

Oh yeah, those are hounds-tooth pants!  Everybody has to wear the same, super-strict uniform - including long sleeve chef coat, baggy pants, non-slip black shoes, apron, and white hat.  And sadly, no jewelry - which means I can't wear my engagement ring.  I expected that part, but it's still a little tough to take my ring off, I haven't even had it that long!

Luckily, the chef-instructor had emailed us the guidelines early, so I had time to order extra-small ladies' cut online - which is waaay better than the 3XLs that were in stock at the uniform store.  But his emails made him sound really strict (he expects to never see a wrinkle), which had me even more nervous for class - especially because I was pretty sure that I had ordered the wrong hat.  The guidelines said white hat.  Do you know how many varieties of white hats there are on chef uniform websites??

So even though I was really excited that the day was finally here, I was still nervous to head to school Monday morning, and just preparing myself to get chewed out for the wrong hat, too-long fingernails, or something else I had missed.  But as it turns out,  there were people with no uniform at all, no book, and no knife kit.  (That's what I'm holding in the photo - my baking "kit" - knives, spatulas, measuring cups, pastry and decorating tools, and lots of other fun stuff.)  So I felt way better - and he said my hat was ok, even though he thinks it makes me look like I just had brain surgery.

So on top of already being nervous, I got to class early and started talking to the other people waiting in the hall outside the classroom (the uniforms definitely make it easy to spot the other culinary students on campus...), and started hearing horror stories.  Apparently the chef had a few horrible reviews on the professor-rating websites, and some people who had taken his class before compared him to Chef Gordon Ramsey.  Now I developed some pretty thick skin in construction, but if he calls me a donkey or a cow, I might just cry. 

Apparently there was even a rumor going around school that someone made him mad in class, so he calmly took his chef jacket off, beat the kid bloody, calmly put his jacket back on and went back to lecturing.  According to him, it's just a crazy rumor that developed after someone cursed at him and he told them to get the f*** out of class.  Whew - this could be a long semester.  Especially because he is the instructor for both of my classes on Mondays - Baking Ingredients & Technology from 8-10:50 and Specialty Breads from 11-4:50.  But he actually seemed pretty nice in person, had a great sense of humor about all the horror stories, and just has high expectations for his students (ok, I can handle that...).

Well, the Ingredients class is all brand new students like me, so it was easy to get talking to people and start making friends right away.  We jumped right into lectures on types of flour, gluten strands, and a lot of other technical stuff.  No kitchen time this week, though, just introduction.

Specialty Breads has a few people carried over from the morning class, plus a few people who have taken classes with him before.  We were supposed to make biscuits the first day, but the ovens weren't working! Very disappointed about that, but we got to explore the kitchen and check out all the commercial equipment.  I have worked in a LOT of restaurants, but always front of the house.  So I have seen all this stuff before, but never actually used any of it.  The first three weeks of lessons are on quickbreads - biscuits, muffins, etc - some of my favorites, so I am really excited and ready to get baking.  I wish Labor Day didn't mean it will be TWO weeks until my next baking class.... 

So over all the first day was great.  We even got to sample some awesome cookies (I guess from another class) during one of our breaks - YUM!  Tomorrow I have Food and Beverage Management - no uniform or hands-on baking for that one, and my other two classes are online.  Oh, and quick update - everybody else was right, I was wrong - I definitely wasn't the oldest person in my classes.  There were a lot of people close to my age and a few older.   I knew it was a silly concern, but I definitely feel better.  I'm actually really excited to get to know the people in my classes, we obviously have some common interests!

a few campus shots... the classroom/kitchen we were in are in a beautiful new building, sitting right by a pretty pond - made for a very nice spot to sit and eat my lunch :)