I’ve been in such a rush the past few days it’s been hard to find a few moments to write. Culinary school is in session, and in full swing now. We’ve gotten our whites and checks, been through our first neck kerchief ceremony, been issued the first two of many textbooks, and been through a few days of class.
I’m not sure about my classmates. There are quite a few – the majority, in fact – who idolize Paula Deen. I don’t have anything against the woman for sure, it just seems like they will need to learn to love to step the game up a bit more in my mind. Most are younger than me, which I did find a little surprising. Then again, the older students are probably the ones taking advantage of the night class program.
We are a rowdy bunch – and I think reading “Kitchen Confidential” helped prepare me for this reality. My first Chef-Instructor cusses, not at us a la “Hells Kitchen” style, but more as a point of daily conversation. Makes me feel better as I’ve been horrible at curbing my language after being a truck driver for so many years! We are a bunch of oddballs and misfits. Former convicts, druggies, beauty school grads, hipsters and punks. In fact, even Chef isn’t ashamed of his previously checkered past.
Lectures start on topic, but rapidly swerve onto sideroads I didn’t even realize were there. The one thing I can say is that its never dull and my Chef’s passion is palpable and contagious. I am even more charged up than I was when I enrolled, and we don’t even have knife kits or set foot in the kitchen yet.
The building always smells wonderful from the upperclassmen’s projects though, and I have to watch or my weight is going to balloon out here! (We get a student discount at the school restaurant too!)
