It's now Wednesday, Aug. 22nd. I attended the morning class of Basic Food Prep as I have an appt. this afternoon and Chef Ashman was kind enough to let me swap my afternoon class. Thanks Chef!

Today we covered Chapter one - History & Professionalism. Sort of boring, but when you consider that without the fellows like Carême, Escoffier, and Point (sp?) we wouldn't be where we are today in the culinary world, I guess it's a necessary evil.

That said - we moved to the kitchen and got to handle various knives and feel the fit of them in our hands. We were taught to sharpen them with coarse, medium, and fine stones and then to remove the burrs with a steel. Simple enough, but slow going. Chef Ashman assures us that speed will come with time and practice. And that we will grow sick of sharpening knives. We got to practice cutting up some carrots. Monday's class will almost be entirely in the kitchen practicing chopping various vegetables. I'm ready....

Yesterday was business math class - more like a finance class than a math class. It's been over 20 years since I've had basic algebra, so I'm behind a bit. I took home a practice quiz and am baffled by the fractions. What is it about those freaky little numbers that make my mind go numb? So, I'm going to go to school early on Thursday and go into the Success Center and see about getting some brief tutoring on fractions. Hey, it's free - so why not take advantage of it?

Yesterday I also had my first Intro. to Hospitality class - also with Chef Ashman. In this class, we learn the "business" side of things. We have a major project in this class - we have to come up with an entire menu, standardized recipes, restaurant building plans, projected earnings and losses, etc. etc. - it's going to be very interesting. For class tomorrow we are to come up with a name for our restaurant and what sort of dining establishment it will be. I have decided to name mine "Feast" and it will be a cafe/bistro type. Not sure what sort of menu I'll start with, but am thinking hard on it for now.

More later, kids. Right now I've got to blaze.