Slow and Steady
July 24 1998		Last Day Fatigue sets in
The task of the day: 4 cream soups		We made three out of four "cream" soups today. Not all of them were actually made with cream, but all were non-clear. Lots of stuff in them. Our Chili Soup and Clam Chowders were very good. The Cream of Tomato also turned out well. Milli added some uncalled for basil to the soup that gave it a nice edge. I cheated some modifications into the chili soup, using beer as part of the base, along with a corn meal thickener. Turned out okay, but there are a few other things I probably would have done with it given additional time. The biggest problem today was that the other members of my team really didn't work as fast as they needed to in order to finish the soups on time. It was okay, really, but a frustrating finish to the week. We easily could have finished them up, but with all of the burners on the stove in use, there wasn't a chance to get the last one done on time. In fact, the Cream of Tomato only barely made it. The stove next to ours has two burners basically out, which means that the two teams are sharing 6 burners, so this requires coordination between the two teams. This early in the cycle, it just isn't there yet. Oh well, it was Ed's last day, and it was the end of a long week. I think everyone was pretty tired, so I'm not upset about it. Still, we could have ended on a more up note. * * * Tonight we went out drinking with Chef and our student assistant. Was loads of fun. Shawn is also a pretty neat guy, although very quiet in class. On the way to the bar, we walked past the final projects from this week's ice carving class. Sitting out on the grass were over 1000 pounds of ice, carved into carousel horses, frogs, bears, and other strange animals. They were glistening in the overhead lights and melting in the 80 degree heat. Neat. This was also the last night for many of the Asian Cuisine students, who we were sitting with at the bar. Swapped cards and phone numbers with many of them. Some claim to be planning on reading this journal. If so, "Hi Derek!" * * * Sliced off half of a nail on my left index finger today. It's probably a good thing I sharpened my knives, as it was a very clean cut. It was a stupid mistake, and I feel dumb. Still, it's the first blood of the class, so it's a sign that I'm getting more professional. :-) I was mincing some salt pork, and it was very slippery.
past home future index		Copyright 1998 Tom Dowdy Comments? dowdy@poubelle.com