Culinary school so far

Being a culinary student has been interesting so far.  There are currently 14 of us, though it is debatable whether one person will return.  For the most part, we all get along pretty well.  Most of us are pretty close in age which is cool.  But I would not say we are all similar in our life, school, and culinary experiences.  Some have much more experience cooking a variety of dishes.  Some lack experience in a high-stress work or school environment.

Well the beginning was a bit slow for me as it was mostly material I learned in undergrad.   I think they were going at a slow pace in the beginning to get us acquainted with how they run the school.   Some students are fresh out of high school while others have not been in a classroom for almost 10 years, so not everyone was prepared to jump right into a face-paced learning environment.  They have started picking up the pace recently as we are now in our third week.

We finally got to brand new material for me, which was fun.  I learned all about stocks, sauces, and soups.  We have started making a couple ‘mother sauces’  and soups in the kitchen and will continue to make more.  In a little while we will have a theory test and then we will have a practical test where we will have to cook a sauce or soup and be graded on the consistency, texture, and taste. So far in class I am nailing the taste component!  But the consistency, which is more important, is not quite right.  I am really enjoying what I am learning now.  They may not always be the healthiest recipes, but now I know where these sauces and soups are starting from.

The chefs certainly have a Mr. Martin-way of teaching.  For those of you who do not know Mr. Martin, he was our German class teacher at PVI.  He focused a lot on life lessons, rather than the textbook material.  That is why after 4 years of taking German, I really know very very little; and after two years Ben only knows how to say ‘I go to school on a moped.” So in Dubai, we may go over 3-5 pages of material in an entire day.  But we will hear tons of ‘this one time at the restaurant...’ stories.  Very interesting stories, and often good-to-know info, but it is certainly one reason the pace of the class goes so slow.

I continue to get a lot of nutrition questions being the nutritionist of the class.  Questions range from ‘how many calories do you think this sauce has in it?’ to ‘can you tell me what to eat on a daily basis?’  I even got to do an impromptu nutrition lesson on fiber a couple days ago.  The topic of the class was salads, and people had quite a few health questions.  So the instructor asked me to come to the front of the class and talk about the glycemic index, fiber, and weight loss.  It was funny to see how easy it is for students to ask off-topic questions.  The instructor probably wanted me to talk for no more than 5 minutes, but it ended up being about 8 – 10 minutes because there were so many questions.  It was fun to see so much interest in the health aspect of food!

Soon we will be participating in Meydan, which is a HUGE horseracing event in Dubai for the rich and famous.  Then we will be participating in Taste of Dubai, which will have vendors, tastings, music, and lots of people to talk to in the industry.  Both will be real life experience, but really long hours.  Saturday we will be at Meydan from 10am unti 12am! 14 hours!  So I’m crossing my fingers for a good job position.

Here are some pictures so far:

This is the group at Gulfood event

One of many amazingly creative and artistic dishes at the Gulfood contest

A few of us got to participate in making pastry decorations.  We were supposed to make those flowers seen at the lower right corner of the pictures.  It was really very hard!  Harder than it looked!

Cream Soups
I made the cream of mushroom soup and Chris made the cream of broccoli soup.