The Bird Man

Today's person of interest shall henceforth be known as Falcon. Falcon is a gentleman in his 30's, used to attend my College as a music major. I don't remember why Falcon stopped, but he did about a decade ago. Talented in Music, pretty good at cooking. I would put him in the top Third of my classmates from food preparation. He seems to lack some of the drive other people have, but he does try hard. Sadly for Falcon, life has a tendency to knock him around a bit, but he recovers well from it. Falcon is also in Baking with me this semester, and we group up frequently, since we both agree that baking is not the thing for us. We can bake ok, but being at a stove or grill suits us a lot better. Falcon brings his own range of optimism and humor to the group of people I hang around and he's very easy going at times when its appropriate. Most people wouldn't tag him as such, but Falcon observes how people act and work. I have seen Falcon watch how one person cuts a potato, and then mimic it to see if it works for him. Granted, its not a true mimicry of the knife handling, but the fact that he does it because he notices other people having an easier time using a different technique shows that he does have a generally high intelligence compared to the majority of our peers.

Next Up is..

Next up on people I shall blather on about is one we will call Mexicasian. Mexicasian is a pretty good dude, young, but his head is screwed on mostly right. Still a bit young, but understands that there is a time and place for everything. He too feels, as with a lot of the people I will talk about this semester, that there are too many warm bodies in my classes. People who are a waste of space, and ruining a chance for someone with a real passion to get into a class. That being said, he also doesn't mind joking around, but only when it is appropriate or timely, and never insults aimed at hurting others. Mexicasian also is disjointed from his peers. He spent a semester at home doing nothing and therefore gained a new found respect for keeping busy and going to college. Because of that, he is young as most incoming freshman, but at the same time, alot older than most of my classmates and his friends, who dont understant the torture of doing nothing for days on end or how working and being busy makes it hard to just sit and wait around alot. I'll write more later, with update on drama of my life.

My new Schedule

Drama Aside for the time being. I am in Baking, Chocolate, and ServSafe. ServSafe is taught by a chef instructor/aide. Good Woman with her head and heart in the right places. We'll call her Picky. Picky is a damned good chef, and is selfless and always doing her best to help the students out. Baking and Chocolate is taught by a Chef from France who has lived in America for a few decades. Good man, always willing to share a joke, and always willing to help. We'll term him Frenchy, and I dont use that as a bad term for this Chef.

Hmm, who will we talk about now? Ah, a classmate we will call Semantics. Semantics is quickly turning out to be a good friend, he is nearly a decade older than I and always willing to share his experiences and outlook. Semantics is also a comedian, with plenty of good jokes and one liners that help to pass the time whilst waiting for breads to proof and ferment. He also is someone with a real passion for baking, which I respect deeply. I make a decent loaf of bread, but his far outshine my own. Semantics wants to actually become a Baker and he would do damned well as one. I will write more later, sans drama of my life

I doth RETURN!

Ooooh K, I started semester again. ALOT of drama and life has happened over summer. I worked my ass off over summer, literally. Lost like 20 pounds or so. Have nothing to show for the work besides a recommendation and lack of money. I've done alot of growing up. Too much in too little time it seems, but C'est La Vie. I met a wonderful woman, which we will call Lover. We hit it off fast and well. We share similar goals and values for life. I fell in love with her. Then life took a swing at me. I got Lover Pregnant. I manned up, started frantically searching for a source of income, and generally doing my best to be the best I can. Life takes another swing. Lover has a miscarriage. It hurts her bad. She said that it was through between us. I spend a week moping. Got better with alot of help from my True Friends. Lover and I talk. We want to try and make things the way it was before Life took a few swings at us. I agree because I love her. I have thought about it all for the past couple days and have come to the conclusion that as much as I want it to work, it wont. We have no common ground between us, and our outlooks on alot of things are different. At this point I realize that it wont work unless we force ourselves, and I care too much about Lover to do that too her. So now I have to decide on how do I approach the whole matter. We shall see soon enough.

Oops

I really need to update this thing more often.
After Spring Break, i went back to the daily grind of culinary arts at college. Standard BS, substandard standards we're being held too, etc. Only news worthy development is the lack of a 3rd semester of Food Prep. That's right, they're really trying hard to screw us over. at least 15 of my current classmates need food prep 3, but we have to wait till spring of 2011 till we can get in, if the bring it back at all. Same with ServSafe. Now ServSafe is even more important of a class, as it teaches about all the proper handlings of food so one does not go about all willy nilly and end up killing or injuring customers. Things at my college seem to be aimed at hittin the fan as fast as possible, though I will still hold onto hope, you never know what tomorrow will bring.

As for me, I have a summer job as a line cook far away from all the BS in the city. So far in fact, that I will have no cellphone reception and can only access e-mail, nothing else, since the satellite uplink only allows about 2 or 3 gbs of data transfer (it sounds outdated to me, but who am I to complain, keeps the drama llamas from finding me) I will be back in time for semester, at which time I will do my best to update this on a better schedule than "Oh, I have that blog, huh? better update it I guess"

Spring Break

Well, this next week will be spring break. The time off will help my mental state. Chef GL and Chef Whitehair have made this past week crawl by slower than molasses on snow. Chef Whitehair shows even more signs of losing his damned mind, and Chef GL is his same old power-thirsty self. Thank god for small mercies and breaks from school.

This time I'll discuss, uh, lets call her Blondie. Blondie seems to be one of the older students in class, though I'm not sure her age, nor would I attempt to. She seems to spend a lot of time around Old Man and enjoy his company. Blondie has her own set of luggage that I swear is becoming standard for Culinary Arts students at my college. She lacks assertiveness and decisiveness for a woman her age, and I dont see why, but I know very little about her beyond what I've seen directly. I will note that I don't believe Blondie will truly make it in the culinary world. I think shes in the program just to go back to school for whatever damned reason that may be.

New Shores Ahead

So, obviously a few people in culinary arts along with myself have noticed changes and are less than pleased with the future changes. As always, I am not saying what, who, when, where, or any details pertaining to the changes coming along. All I can say is the few people who have learned the skill of closing their mouths and opening their eyes and ears have learned whats going on. Some people have heard about changes, but as always, have neglected to look at all that's going on and are focusing on only what they want. All I personally know is that culinary arts is going to go for an interesting twist in the coming future.

Lets see here, who to rant about now? I know, a classmate we'll call Old man. Old Man is not really old, just old styled. I wouldn't put Old Man much more older than Trusted One at any rate. Old Man is interesting in the fact that he has the enthusiasm one would expect out of a child, and not the bad kind. He is one of the few people I know of that truly show enthusiasm for culinary arts. Because of this I always find it refreshing to hang around Old Man in the mornings and in class. He also is one of the few people in my class with a sense of humor that is not aimed at 'harming' other peoples self for the joke. He also seems to be able to be patient, although the times where I see Old Man practice it are getting far and few in-between due to Chef GL's way of teaching and going off on tangents. I honestly think that Old Man may make it in the culinary world if he can keep his enthusiasm for culinary arts up.

Knife Sharpening

Today Chef GL is teaching (reteaching actually) how to sharpen your knives. I wont go into any of the details here, its hard to explain. Look it up on youtube or something, it will be better demonstrated on some of the professional videos. Anyways, back on track, Chef GL is rather upset with some of my peers and the shape of their knives ( those that bring/ own their own knives that is). I agree with him that some people have knives that are in less than great condition, but lecturing the class may be a bit much. It would be better to drag those who aren't maintaining their knives into a private lesson, instead of forcing the whole class to wait for him.

Another peer I will talk about is Genius. Genius is, well, a genius. And he knows it, which makes him arrogant to the less intelligent members of my class. Genius hangs around Trusted One and Knight alot, but he has more in common with Trusted One, due to Genius being closer in age to her. What I'd like to see from Genius is some kind of motivation. Both Trusted One and I have made comments about his apparent lack of enthusiasm, but I'm starting to think that nothing the college has to offer will spark his interest. I think that nothing here really challenges him, but that might just be a downside to his extra experience compared to the rest of us sitting at 18 to 22 years old, compared to his 30 years of life. All in all, I believe Genius is a good guy, but I truly wish to see what interests him, if not only just to see him get motivated about it

Interesting

So, today we were supposed to take our chapter test. Turns out another chef (Whitehair from now on) decided that we would instead work in the cafeteria's kitchen. The kitchen is currently being rented out by a company we will call Red. Now, this got many peoples panties in a bunch since we were all expecting our test and suddenly we had to spend 2 hours in Red's kitchen. Chef Whitehair had us in there as a way of 'building bonds' with Red. Now this would be fine and dandy, but Red's Employees and the Culinary arts students have a long history of not getting along too well. So a few people refused to work for Red, even more bitched about it, and a few of us basically said "go with it, its not worth making a hubbub about it". The Test still got done, and Chef GL has us in the kitchen for the next 2 days on projects, which are bound to be interesting due to lack of burner space, but that's another worry for another day.

Another classmate of mine, whom we'll call Knight, is an interesting fellow. I can't seem to figure him out completely, but Knight is a man of his word and a man of honor, which automatically makes him a real good guy in my books. Knight is young, but he does not show it in his actions or words. I would not say Knight always thinks about what he says before he says it, but he at least filters out alot of possible comments aimed at other people. He also seems to look up at Trusted One as a friend and possible mentor. Knight is another one of my peers whom I trust, sheerly based on who they are and are not.

Sooo...

My current Chef is a real piece of work. For sake of argument we shall call him 'GL'. I don't want to name names, nor will I, since this is an open Blog and I respect the privacy of others. Chef GL has decided that today would be a good day to confuse the hell out of the entire class. First he talks about a new grading method that another Chef uses. Then he says we will grade upon arrival of our menu items. Then he decides to go back to the other Chef's way of grading. Needless to say, alot of my classmates got confused and/ or frustrated with this 'double-talk' on Chef GL's part. I frankly said screw it and let him grade as he wishes, I'll just do my best on my project and let him decide on what to do. Sadly a number of my classmates are disgruntled about the 'double-talk' and are doing a whole bunch of moaning and groaning about said 'double-talk'. I am starting to notice (more now than last semester) who in the class can deal with stress and sudden changes better than others. I had hoped that, the majority of the class being above the age of 21, my peers would not gripe and groan about perceived 'injustices' by our Chef's. Instead I seem to be stuck with a slight majority of my class that are children(based on their whining) in adult bodies.

Luckily The Minority of my Peers are people I can talk to and come to for advice on life, since they have been there and have done that. One classmate (we'll call her Trusted One) is a slight bit older than the rest of us, and she lets us know it. The great part about Trusted One is that she is willing to teach others at no gain to herself. Trusted One also has a knack for teaching concepts in 'plain english', basically in a way and manner that your average Joe Schmoe on the street could understand. I am luckily enough to call Trusted One among my most trusted friends, hence the name. There are many other class mates of mine that I wish to write about, but those shall wait for later rants, and later posts