Baking Bootcamp: Day 1

Five minutes into my first pastry class, I cut my finger. I was attempting to zest an orange, and zested my thumb instead.

The chef ran down the hall to First Aid. Apparently, that same morning, a student was rushed off in an ambulance. Thank god it was just a small cut.

Class was frenetic. People were running around like dogs chasing their tails. No one knew how to do anything. When we got in the kitchen, there were no instructions about what we were doing, we just had to do it. It was assumed that since we saw a demo on it already, we would be ready. The thing is, none of us were. It was the funniest thing I think I’ve ever seen. Everyone was bumping into each other, opening knife kits, closing knife kits, looking completely perplexed as to which knives to use, looking around to copy off someone else who also had no clue. The stupidest part was, it seemed we all forgot how to chop fruit. I mean that’s all we were making: fruit salad. Somehow, though, everyone was hesitant and we were all asking each other, “is this right?” It took us all two hours to get two servings worth of fruit in our bowls.

I wish I had a camera, though. My fruit salad was gorgeous. I arranged it nicely with a sprig of red currants and a few star anise pieces on top. I looked around the room and was amazed how different everyone’s salads looked. The Japanese girls were really into shaping their orange zest pieces into peacock tails, but quite honestly, their bowls didn’t look all that great. I’m not saying mine was fabulous (well, yes, actually I am saying that), I’m just saying peacock feathers don’t always make for a winning showpiece. Unless they’re, say, on a peacock.

I don’t know how I did it, but I was the first to be done - with my sugar syrup, with my fruit slicing and with my plating and judging. I wasn’t trying to get done, I just did. I still can’t get my fruit uniformly sliced, which was his criticism, but I think I did alright with plating and clean up. A, a guy from Thailand with a European name, was my partner and we really helped each other out a lot. I’m learning about teamwork in the kitchen. You could be all for yourself but why? Everyone else is in the same boat and it’s nice to get help as well as to give it. It feels natural to do so, even though I’ve never worked much in group environments like this. People don’t seem cutthroat at all, despite this being a high and mighty school. But then, it’s only day one. And then there’s always the locker room. Any day now there will be an all out brawl. Imagine, fitting 100 girls in the space the size of a closet. Some heads are gonna roll…