First Day of School Fun

"If I could wrap a brownie in a chicken cutlet and cover it in bacon sauce, I would."

- Chef Katie Miranda

That is a direct quote from the woman who will be teaching me about baking and pastry for the next 4 months. Awesome.

I don’t really know how to describe my first day at pastry school, except to say that it probably wasn’t what you’d expect. We got some of our supplies (school bag, textbook, calculator & notebook) and our black chef’s shoes, which look like something I can imagine Pat wearing. The rest of our outfits (jackets, pants & toques) will probably come in sometime next week. As Chef Katie was describing the different components of the chef outfits (she was wearing hers, including the hat), one of my classmates mentioned that she’d seen someone walking around the school wearing a black chef’s hat, and can you choose from different colors? She just looked at her and said, “Yeah, that’s stupid…I don’t know why he has that, but a chef’s hat should always be white.” Funny times abound in pastry school. Aside from that, most of the day was spent getting to know everyone’s backgrounds and personal goals. Chef Katie definitely loves to talk – about everything and anything. She had each of us fill out a sheet with questions about ourselves, and then she went around the room and had each of us tell the rest of the class what we wrote down. I will leave you tonight with my answers:

1. Name: Brooke
2. Hometown: Buffalo, NY – it always amazes me how shocked people from downstate are when they find out that I am originally from Buffalo. Chef Katie looked at me incredulously and said, “How did you wind up here?!?!”, as if I had moved to NYC from the other side of the world as opposed to the other side of the state.
3. Current Employer: Animal Hospital – thank heavens I found a part-time job so quickly!
4. Experience in the Industry: Other than keeping my friends and family in constant supply of hot fudge sauce? Not much.
5. Why did you choose Our School?: Honestly? The cost. Obviously I like the program and the people (otherwise why bother?), but this school cost less than half of what some of the other schools do, which is very important to me right now
6. What is your career goal after graduation?: Eventually I’d like to open up my own bakery with my good pal Lisa (Hi Lisa!!), but more immediately I’d be happy with remaining gainfully employed as a pastry cook.
7. What is something you would really want to learn how to make?: Now honestly, I changed my answer at least 3 times because everyone else was saying such fun things (challah, baklava, etc.), but my original answer was tiramisu, b/c I think it would really impress my in-laws
8. What do you love to make/eat?: Do you really have to ask? Pie!
9. What do you hate to make/eat?: Now this answer won me both hatred and love from my instructor. Hatred for my first answer – pork chops (apparently she lives and dies for pork) and love for my second – chicken wings (I’m sorry, but I hate eating meat off the bone…dirty, I know).

Then Chef Katie says, “You know it’s funny, I usually wind up giving people nicknames while in the program…” and before she could finish, I blurted out, “Please don’t call me pork chops…” She chuckled and told me that she had actually been thinking about calling me “Hot Wings”, although I’m not sure that’s much better.

10. What is the last dish you made/baked at home?: Pizza from scratch for the Super Bowl – yum!
11. What is the last restaurant/bakery you ate at?: Mesa Grill during restaurant week. I didn’t get to see Bobby Flay, but the food was seriously amazing.
12. Who, if any, is your favorite chef?: I was really surprised that so many of my classmates said that they didn’t have a favorite. I said that mine was a tie between Nigella Lawson (my favorite domestic goddess) and Duff Goldman. The one older woman in my class said that her favorite is Sandra Lee, and I had to keep myself from falling on the floor when I saw the look that came over Chef Katie’s face – hilarity. She just paused for a minute and said, “I won’t tell you what I think about her…or Rachel Ray.”