Monday, September 28th

The first day of class we had a five hour lecture about school encompassing everything from our syllabus to our tests to our very particular uniform (points will be removed for a missing name tag, out of place hair that should be under your hat, wearing your apron out of the kitchen, not wearing your kerchief, wearing a shirt other than white under your jacket, wearing socks that are not either white or black, wearing jewelry on your hands or arms and earrings that are not studs – NO hoops allowed) . Our day is based on 200 points consisting of keeping your area clean, your final product (what we bake in class that day), participation, etc. There are about 13 kids in my class – give or take. We are taught by Chef Cindy Muchet (pronounced Moo-Shay) who has published three cookbooks (one of which I happen to own – crazy) and yes, we call her “Chef” so everything is “yes, Chef” or “thank you, Chef” as it is important that we acknowledge that we have heard what she has said. The students range from people like me who have decided a new career course, to recent college grads (a few 21 and 22 year olds) and a few parents in their early 30’s as well as a mom who is 43 and a Jersey native know-it-all who is 54. My table is comprised of three other girls (there are only two men in our program) – Erika (who takes all her notes in Chinese and who’s her father is from Europe), Vicki (who admitted today that she is good at figuring out our equations homework because she is Asian – so obviously, I adore her) and Heidy (our youngest classmate who is 20 and has just completed the culinary program). We all seem to work at pretty much the same pace, which is great because we pace each other. Oh, also, I have a classmate named Pharyn. What?! So that was day one…