One of the most challenging things I’ve encountered after day two is not the station set up (that’s called mise en place, by the way), or the colored buckets and cans I described yesterday. Rather it’s the recent high school graduates and early 20-somethings. Trying to have a conversation is sometimes just plain frustrating. By lunch I had to take a break and eat by myself.
Before the first session at 8:00AM I was chatting with a girl from Southern California that I had met the day before. I asked her if her parents went back down south. She said no, her dad was playing golf with Tiger Woods “like for reals.” I couldn’t give two shits about Tiger Woods, but she said for reals…plural. I know everyone under 50, including me, says ‘like’ like almost all the time, so I guess who am I to complain?
But it’s like the Real World went to culinary school. Guys hanging around girls sitting together and chatting them up. Girls with more decoration on their face than the wedding cakes being made across the way in the chocolate lab. Small bits of their face pierced. And so on…CRAP, am I sounding like an old fart?
I think it’ll get better next week when the three classes break up – two culinary and one pastry – and it’s small group classes. I’m so much better at meeting people in small groups anyway. I’ve never been a fan of freshman year orientation games.
The best part of lunch today was the stewed winter vegetables blanketing roasted salt cod. The cod was meh, but the vegetables were soft, stewy and full of flavors. Greens, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, tomatoes – perhaps French or even Spanish seasoning?? I paired it with a basic, but lovely, green salad with a refreshing Green Goddess dressing.
Speaking of stewy veg, how about a French favorite with a new twist?