One Week Down

I can probably speak for our whole class when I say we're itching to really start cooking. It must be our tool kit. It has us all giddy and we want to play!

Friday was our second kitchen day and we spent a fair amount of time practicing our cuts again. Um, it's gonna be a while before I'm good at that, yikes. Anyway, in reading through the lesson to prepare, I drooled a little bit because bruschetta would be the very first thing we'd make. I love bruschetta when it's done properly. It couldn't be more simple yet it's so fresh, vibrant and delicious. I think I could really live on that and wine alone. The process that we'll abide by going forward will usually be a demo from the chef, we'll cook and then present our dish to be tasted and critiqued. I was actually excited about the presenting part because I really thrive on feedback when I cook. I'm much harder on myself than I probably should be but it's well-intentioned. I just want to be the best I can be but I do need to learn not to be so serious sometimes.

The way we learned to prep the tomatoes made every difference in the world as this bruschetta was totally delicious and hey, I made it! I surprised myself by how tasty it was but this is precisely why I'm in culinary school learning how to do things right. It thought it didn't look half bad either:

It was neat for me to make something and have such a well respected chef taste it and critique it. I got nice feedback from Chef Guido and that was a boost of encouragement that I needed more than I thought! Granted, this is a very easy dish so I anticipate lots of bumps in the road later on but it doesn't take away from feeling happy about it. :)

So, one school week down and my, what a fabulous, tiring, intense, educational and exciting week it was. This 'preview' into what life will really be like going forward was totally awesome. I'm in for probably the hardest work of my life yet I couldn't be happier about it. I suppose that solidifies how 'meant to be' I feel this all is, eh? Lots to look forward to!

On a side note, I had a super fun St. Patrick's Day with great friends! Colleen had invited me over for a waffle brunch at her apartment to start our day which was so sweet and different. It's been ages since we did something like that! We had a wonderful time catching up and I give a big thumbs up to the chef:

The rest of the day was just as nice filled with beautiful sunny weather, laughs and lambrusco. Yep, we managed to actually have an adult, civilized St. Patty's celebration for the first time in all of our lives, heehee. It was fun and a great end to a hard week!