It was the first day of HOS 121: Decorating and Finishing Techniques. It was also my first day as a baking and pastry student, and my first dreaded class with Chef Gronert. I had heard bad things about him.
I walked into class and sat down, wondering how terrible this class could possibly be. After I had spent a minute or two convincing myself that it very well may turn out to be pure torture, Chef Gronert looked down at his class roster, then looked up and said, “Who is... Violet?” I wasn’t sure why he wanted to know, but I raised my hand and said, “That’s me.” He looked at me like he was both confused and annoyed and said, “What are you doing here?”
That was definitely not the best way this class could have possibly started. I wasn’t even sure how to respond. I had never had a teacher ask me what I was doing in their class, I assumed because most of them were aware that college students generally enrolled in and attended classes. I went through a few possible responses in my head like, “Well, I thought that maybe since I want to get a degree, I should try going to college and taking all the required classes,” or, “Oh, I’m just here for fun. Isn’t that why people go to college?” or maybe even, “What are you doing here?”
My actual response ended up being more of a blank stare and a shrug. He explained to me that I was supposed to take this class after Intro to Cakes, which I was also taking that semester. That’s why he already knew everyone in the class except me. I also found out that the class used to be called Advanced Cakes, but I suppose the smart thing to do was to change that. Anyway, he told me a few times that I could drop the class until next semester and I was pretty sure he was recommending that, but I kind of wanted the challenge, so I decided not to.
I almost regretted that decision when I realized that he was going to pick on me three days a week all semester. In fact, just later that day when I was having a hard time cutting blocks of butter into small cubes, he decided to walk up behind me and squeeze my arm until I thought it could snap in half at any moment. Then he kindly informed me that I had no muscle in my arm. Thanks for that.
I liked Intro to Cakes way more than I liked Advanced Cakes because it was easier and the people in Intro were more fun. One time in class, we didn’t really have anything to do for a few hours. Laura and Michelle, who sat at the table in front of me and are pretty awesome, decided to see if they could make tiny cornets (piping bags). Michelle made one about the size of her finger tip, and when she set it on the tip of her finger, it looked like a hat. Since we were all obviously mature adults, we decided to make finger puppets, so she got out a pen and drew a face on her finger. Then Laura decided to make him a wife. Chef Gronert was talking to people about their ideas for their practical finals, and we were making finger puppets while laughing hysterically and taking pictures. That was definitely one of my favorite days in any of my classes.
Another one of my favorite school days happened in Purchasing class. I hated that class with a passion because it was way too advanced for a first-semester student, and I took it my first semester. We would have about an hour-long lecture, and then we would split into groups and go work on our assignments in a kitchen or the storeroom or wherever we needed to go.
On this particular day, my group was working in the bakeshop. We basically had to write down how many of each necessary item we had on the shelf. We had one person find everything and one person type while everyone else just sort of sat around waiting. We talked about taking a carrot cake out of the cooler and splitting it between the six of us, but we weren’t sure if we would be able to finish it. Then one of the guys in the group said he thought he was the youngest because he was eighteen. Everyone looked at me and asked me how old I was, so I told them, but they didn’t believe me until I showed them my driver’s permit. Then we hung out and looked at pictures of cakes until it was time for class to end.
Another time, when everyone went to do their lab work, a classmate and I stayed in the classroom and looked at stuff on FAIL Blog. After an hour or so, we decided to go look for the rest of our group, but we couldn’t find them, so we just went home. Then there was the time that Chef Morgan was taking roll, and when he got to my name he said, “Miss Beasley, are you here?” I thought it was a dumb question since, if I answered, I was obviously there. So I decided to say no. I’m pretty sure he actually marked me absent that day. As much as I despised that class, it was fun sometimes and I got an A.
 |
| These are the awesome finger puppets that Laura and Michelle made. |
No comments:
Post a Comment