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