Week 1 of being a chef

Let me start off by saying that this is the course that I was least excited about.  Why you may ask? Well, because I can't cook to save my life.  Seriously, I've screwed up scrambled eggs...  And I solemnly believe that a souffle will fall down at my shear attendance.

So in some weird way, I was relieved that on our first day we didn't go anywhere near food but we got a feel at the other side of cheffing (the part that nobody talks about), the cleaning side!

We were sent to the training kitchen in the academy where the students occasionally get a chance to experiment and use their imaginations.  We were sent to clean this kitchen.  So the four of us did, Pieter, Arno, Tarine and myself, we scrubbed the kitchen, in a hurry since we could go home once we were finished, this was a mistake.  The chef was not happy that we didn't do a proper job so he sent us back to start from scratch.  He explained how to clean, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, we were supervised and the kitchen was inspected, again.  Finally we could go home, just to return the next day, to face my worst nightmare, the main kitchen!  Luckily for me, again, I was in charge of the scullery for the day and I must admit, I got pretty good with cleaning dishes and cutlery.  I was happy but then I was called to help section boerewors into smaller pieces for hot dogs and I was officially scared.  This may seem silly to you as it could be really difficult to fail this simple task but I'm bad at handling failure.  BUT I didn't fail!  I was doing it perfectly!  I also got a chance to cut up some vegetables for mise on place, where chef William showed me exactly how to hold a knife and cut in fast paces without cutting off your own fingers.  We found that it would be more difficult for me since my ring finger is longer than my middle finger, making it difficult to fold all my fingers the same but I made it work for me.  Once again, we cleaned and each day, people are assigned to different sections that you have to check at the end of the day, clean up and make it look neat.

My third day was a seriously fun day, I joined Lorinda, Ruan, Chanel and Francois in the training kitchen where we told to make two different chocolate cakes.  We were allowed to choose our recipes and we chose a chocolate walnut cake and a chocolate fudge cake.  I observed mostly and I'm not talking about the cakes, I watched the different personalities collide, clash and mesh.  I watched the cakes a little too but mostly I learned what type of personalities I will clash with and wouldn't want to work with.

The next day I was a floater in the kitchen, watching all the different stations.  I worked a little in the bakery section, helping Maria to bake scones and mosbolletjies.  I also helped to bake pancakes for our welcoming the afternoon and I was quick to learn how to handle multiple pans and at one stage I could control all four pans but that didn't last long..  We cleaned up after ourselves and it was time for my off weekend.

Before melting

After melting

Chocolate Walnut cake

Chocolate Fudge cake