I now know why chefs and cooks turn out to be alcoholics and drug users. Sad to say, but it's true. Working in the cuisine and patisserie kitchens are completely different, yet same in the sense. I'll try to explain it as well as I can. You put in hard and long hours. There is drama and sometimes angry chefs growling at you. At times, it is enough to make you drink. However, these chefs are not that bad, just hearing the horror stories from the industry from students and chefs...it's nuts.

The cuisine kitchen is fast paced, exhilarating, hot, and lots of get up and go. The chefs are helpful, but critique you and your work space non-stop. It is a good habit to get into, keeping a spotless work space. The chefs in the cuisine kitchen are more hard core and all about getting things done at a face pace. I can understand their reasoning, but some students are not able to keep up the pace in the kitchen, some have never been in a kitchen, much less know how to cut something correctly. Sometimes they treat you like you are stupid, well the non-english speaking students (i.e. the Asian students....what a surprise when they got to me! Ha).

The cuisine kitchen is three kitchens rolled into one, kitchens 12, 13 and 14. Every week we alternate to a different kitchen for three days. Each day we have a different chef. Each chef is different, some more hard core than others. I have only seen one female chef in cuisine. Everyone is in competition with another, trying to get done first and impress the chef. I don't like it.

In cuisine and patisserie, we have yet to present our dishes, after two weeks. We show the chef our food, but they haven't really tried any of it. Serving times will begin next week and tasting will too. Crap! That will make me nervous. But I will not let it get to me. I will go at my own speed. The other weird thing is that we have not been able to taste their products to see if what we make is the real thing. We have no lines to go by - problem? I think so.

Now, the patisserie kitchen is way better than cuisine. The actual kitchen and the chefs are different. The kitchen is just one kitchen in the space. It is so nice. There is a joining kitchen through the sculley (dish room), but we never see those students. The atmosphere of the kitchen is slow paced, easy going, people are friendly and want to help each other. It is so nice! The patisserie chefs are nice. They are there to help you. They critique you, but it's different than the cuisine chefs. They actually notice you. I can't really describe it, just take my word for it. I really like patisserie.

There is one thing that I do love about culinary school - I DON'T HAVE TO DO THE DISHES! There is someone here to do all the dishes for me, except I do have to wash my own equipment, the stuff I own. I don't mind that, I think I can handle those. It is nice to have people do the dishes...it's like in the real world.

Mrs. Strauss, I made bread today...I braided the bread, in three strands and also in four strands. I thought of you while doing it...soon we have to make food!

Cory McEwen, if you read this, I also thought of you today. Your mother told me that you were perfecting bread baking this past summer and you were good at it. I think you would have liked today's class and also the next couple of days. I am learning all these recipes. When I get home, I will give them to you.