So... today was the first day of school. Not bad at all. There are a total of 6 of us... and one other female besides me. I'm the only one with kitchen experience and 5 of us want to open our own restaurant. Three of the guys are buddies and are nail technicians. They want to get a few years sushi experience before they open a sushi restaurant locally. The fourth guy is the one that wants to be a sushi chef and travel around. The other female works at a health food store, wants sushi experience so she can help out in the health food store kitchen and implement her own ideas.
Me? Well, I'm hoping to open my own restaurant one day but still have to decide which kind... a sushi restaurant or a bakery. These past few years I've been working as a pastry chef/ baker and I've been wanting to return to the food side versus staying in desserts. I enjoy both but ever since I was little I wanted to open a sushi restaurant. It wasn't until I attended culinary school that I got interested in baking. Perhaps because the pastry instructor made the class really fun. Or because you got to punch the bread dough and vent out frustrations or because it came naturally or maybe just a combination of all three. I think the only reason I would not start a bakery is that most of the famous bakers are women. When you see a famous female chef her skills are all in the baking or pastry world. You rarely see a good female chef cooking. Even while attending culinary school - there was only one female chef instructor and the rest were pastry/ baking instructors. It's just assumed that if you are a woman, you go to the dessert side. I kinda don't like that. Course, you don't see very many women sushi chefs either. So that's where I want to focus on right now.
Anyway, today was easy. We were assigned our text books, signed waivers in case we chop off our fingers or die from some sort of negligence, recieved our uniforms, knife kits and showed the chef our cutting skills. We chopped up some cucumbers and pototatoes. Course, since those are the only things we cut - those were the only things prepared for lunch. It was interesting for sure. But as the class progresses, whatever we make is what's for lunch.
I wasn't able to use my new toy clipboard since my notes were all taken in the kitchen during our cutting demonstration. I'll get to use it tomorrow. The setup is an hour of lecture, 3 hours of hands-on and one hour of eating lunch/ cleaning up. 5 hours total per day.
I think my other classmates might have an easier time learning since they do not have any restaurant experience. I learned French techniques in cooking and that's what I've been untilizing everywhere I've gone for the past several years. So to learn the Japanese style, I have to pretend to forget how to cook and re-learn how to cut vegetables and so on. It's a bit different and takes some getting used to. When I really concentrate, I do well in the Japanese style of cutting but then again that was just cucumbers and potatoes today.
I went to the grocer and got more potatoes and cucumbers for the house. What better way to perfect cutting than by practicing at home? I just wish my roommates ate potatoes! They are on the Atkins diet and don't eat rice, potatoes, bread and very little sugar. I think my influence is rubbing off though (aren't I evil?)... I see them eyeballing my rice at dinner.
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