A week in and counting

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've had a couple of early mornings the past few days which has left me exhausted. On Sunday I had my second day of school. The first hour was spent hearing from one of the career specialists at the school. She came in and talked to us about volunteer opportunities and how our externships will work. We went around the room and introduced ourselves to her and then said what we would like to do after culinary school. I was the only person who said that they want to be a pastry chef; which was pretty funny. Anyhow, it turns out that it is a possibility that I will get to do my externship with my favorite pastry chef! I was pretty excited to hear that. After we got that information our chef/instructor came in and began the day's lessons. I don't remember all that we did because it was eight hours of lessons, but I do remember that it involved math...

Yuck... Luckily it was some pretty simple math. Although I do have to admit that I always thought that my teachers were lying when they said that I would use algebra later in life. Who knew? After we got done with the math portion of the day we moved onto baking! We made chocolate chip cookies. For all of the baking, you work with a partner. It would have been fine except that I'm a control freak and my partner thought that anything I said was wrong. (Which by the way it wasn't.) Luckily we switch off to a new partner every class. Our cookies turned out alright, but someone didn't measure the chocolate chips before we put them in, so the cookies turned out a little weird, though very delicious. The recipe made somewhere around 36 cookies, I only took a couple home because I didn't really need 18 cookies to eat by myself... (look I just used math again!) Here's a picture of the finished product:

After we made cookies, we moved onto making cornets (aka paper cones), cornets are used to pipe chocolate for decorating and writing. They're made with parchment paper, I forgot to take a picture of them, but if you're curious I'm sure there's a picture on Google. At some point I was told that I needed to go to the registrar's after class. I was then nervous for the rest of class thinking that I was going to be kicked out of school or something. (which is weird since I'm never anxious about anything.) So my chocolate piping was kind of crappy because my hand was almost shaking and all I could think about was getting kicked out.  Well, it turns out that they just needed me to fill out a form for emergency contacts... hahaha. After school I went to the subway to go home and I not only didn't get lost but I gave directions to a foreign couple! I felt so proud.
On Monday, I started at Starbucks. I had to get up at 5am which was not too fun, but I made it to work and back home later without getting lost and without having to look at Google maps! I can pretty much only get to school or the upper west side of Manhattan though; anywhere else and I would probably get lost at least twice. That's about it for now, I have to make a ton of cornets for homework this week and do some reading. Talk to you soon!
-Kayla

And to think, just a few months ago I was vegan...

Wow, it has kind of been a crazy couple of days... I'll just start with yesterday first since there is less to tell. So yesterday I had the brilliant idea to go to a couple of museums. Anyone who knows me knows that, if I could, I would actually live in the MET. It's amazing! I decided that I would go to there first since it's my favorite and a fair amount cheaper. Then I thought that I would go to the MOMA (museum of modern art) since I had not been to that one yet. Mother Nature had other plans for me... I got out of the subway into Manhattan and it was pouring rain and I still had at least five blocks until I was at the MET. So I started walking and, thankfully, had my umbrella but it didn't turn out so well. I was soaked from the knees down, and my shoes and socks were soggy. I was kind of dispirited and decided that after going to the first museum that I would go back home. The MET was still as wonderful as always and even though it was my third time there, almost all of the art that I looked at I had not seen on my two previous trips. I think that I could probably spend a week there and still not see everything. The above picture is part of the Egyptian exhibit that they have and it is awesome! I think that's about it for Friday, onto today!

* note - that is a shadow on the bag, not a stain... lol.

I started school today and was really nervous (imagine that) so I did not sleep very well last night. Since I was so nervous I wasn't very excited for class. I just kept thinking about how I wasn't going to know anyone and wondered if everyone else was going to be better/smarter at this than me. Well, I am happy to report that my fears were unfounded and I felt right at home in the kitchen. In fact, it was AMAZING! Since I got here this past Monday I kept having thoughts wondering if I had made some sort of horrible mistake, or if everyone would think that I'm crazy if I left and went back to Lake Orion; but today reminded me that it isn't a mistake and that this is what I really want to do with my life. I even made it to class without getting lost ;-) ANYWAYS, it started out with an orientation and we went over the student handbook, etc. Basically like the first day of any college class that I've ever taken. Then after we finished that we met our chef/instructor and started discussing ingredients/flavors and talking about the very basic foundations of baking. I'm also sad to report that this involved a little math... I also learned that we get to take home EVERYTHING that we make, which seems a little crazy and other classes will bring food that they've made into your classroom for you to try, which is how I tried a rosemary and red bell pepper focaccia today. They also set out baguettes for your class when you first come in so that you can have a snack... hahaha. Shortly thereafter, I realized that I'm not in over my head. My teacher started asking us questions and I was the only one answering for a while. She started asking us about prominent restaurants/pastry chefs in NYC and I was the only one that answered. Which by the way, I am one of two people out of a class of 13 that is not from the city... But no one else even had a clue about any restaurants in the city or pastry chefs. My teacher actually said, "ok, anyone besides Kayla know of one?" At which point a girl said "The Cheesecake factory?" and I could tell that the teacher was trying not to laugh. We then got lectured that we should know more about this since this is the profession that we are trying to go into; we were also given a homework assignment to research these types of places... Ok, enough bragging about how amazing I am. (I hope that the sarcasm comes across, but I doubt that it does...) For anyone that knows me, you know that I am a picky eater. Well, I decided that I am going to try anything and everything that I am given the opportunity to so that I can have the full experience of culinary school - I'm really hoping that mushrooms do not enter into this. Which leads me into the dairy portion of the day. I am not a fan of dairy, in fact for over six months last year I didn't eat any dairy at all. (or eggs, or meat, or - the list keeps going) Our chef started talking about dairy and its different forms and its many applications in baking. So we talked about creams, cheeses, butters, etc. This also came with tasting... Today I tasted: clotted cream, Crème fraiche  (which by the way is delicious!), mascarpone, Gruyère cheese (which was surprisingly good), and fresh mozzarella. Just a word about clotted cream - don't eat it, it's pretty gross. Ok, I think that's enough for today. Tomorrow I get to bake chocolate chip walnut cookies! And at some point soon I will be learning to make ice cream!

Lots of love,

Kayla

* I also wanted to apologize by how poorly written this post is - I'm going on about 4 hours of sleep and am crazily excited!

Also, I just wanted to say that we're actually encouraged to bring camera's to take pictures of our creations - so expect lots of pictures!

I forgot a couple of things:

1.) After seeing a room from a Frank Lloyd Wright home in the MET, I've now come to the realization that I must live in one.
2.) After seeing an old piece of furniture called a "tete-a-tete," I've realized that the afformentioned house will be incomplete without it.
and 3.) I found a Trader Joe's right by my school! I almost wept at the sight of it. (slight exaggeration - but I was very excited)

edit again: here's a picture of the Frank Lloyd Wright room in the MET ...sigh... I love it. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1972.60.1

We'll call this a successful day...

The subway is where I spent a good portion of my day today. I had a long ride into downtown Manhattan to go to the uniform shop. On my way there though two sets of people performed songs which was pretty funny/entertaining. I would also like to state that I did not get lost once today! That is pretty exciting if you ask me. So I went and picked up my uniform which consists of 3 chef jackets, 5 aprons, 2 pairs of pants (which are black and white checkered...), and a pair of shoes... Now this all sounds great until you remember that I am staying about a 45 minute train ride away. So I got to lug around that heavy bag for awhile. Here's what I got though...

I'm not sure if it really shows up in the picture, but my name is on the jacket! I was so excited, it almost makes up for those horrible pants.

I almost forgot my most exciting moment of the day! I got the job at Starbucks and I start on Monday! I was really excited and cannot wait to be back at Starbucks honing my barista skills. Well, I think that's about it for today.
Kayla

Adventures...

Today started out pretty lazy... I was super tired when I woke up this morning, so I decided that instead of venturing into the city right away, I would catch up on some tv that I missed. haha. After that though I called the place that's doing my school uniform which then told me to call back later to see if it was ready. So, I decided to venture into the city and kill some time before picking up my pastry supplies. I got off the subway at the Rockefeller Center stop and just kind of walk around. So, in that area is Rockefeller plaza, a bunch of news channels, the theater where they film "Late Night with David Letterman," and Radio City Music Hall (see above photo). I then walked around and saw Times Square, which even at 1pm on a Wednesday was filled with people. After that I found a Chipotle and decided to stop for lunch. It was kind of a weird feeling sitting in a restaurant and eating by myself, but it was not as bad as I expected. After Chipotle was when the adventure started. I haven't been carrying around a map of the subway at all; instead I've been relying on the Google Maps app on my phone. Well, it got me lost... So I ended up getting on the wrong train and had to get off at a stop that was around 10 blocks or more away from my destination. Oh well, it wasn't so bad I got to walk around a part of the city that I hadn't seen yet. Then I got to go pick up my pastry supplies from a culinary supply shop. I was in heaven... The whole shop was just all sorts of cooking tools and it was awesome. Here is my haul:

The only bad part about this was that I then had to lug all that stuff around for the next 1.5 hours until I got home. All of it came in the bag that is in the background in the picture. After I got all of that stuff I called and found out I can pick my uniform up tomorrow! I ended up getting on the wrong train on my way home to Queens and had to do some maneuvering in order to get back. I ended up transferring onto another train that was not the right one. Long story short, I had to get off at a stop that was about 10 blocks from where I'm staying. It was a really long day. Well, I think that's all for now. Hope everyone is well!
-Kayla

Bonus picture of the street:

Starting out...

Well, after a tearful goodbye with my dad and sister, I started my first full day in the city. Well, technically outside the city (or at least Manhattan); I'm in the outer borough of Queens and the neighborhood I'm in is apparently the China-town of Queens. It's got a lot of ethnic food nearby, including a thai place that I'm excited to try out. Today I ventured into Manhattan because I had a job interview at a Starbucks there. It was a 25 minute subway ride and I managed not to get lost (I was quite proud). The interview went really well, the manager seemed cool and said that he would really like to hire me, so keep your fingers crossed please! After my interview I had some time to kill before getting fitted for my chef's uniform at school, so I walked up a couple blocks and went to Barnes and Noble! It was a huge one! I spent some time in there looking at books and ended up getting a bowl of tomato basil soup from the cafe for lunch. After Barnes and Noble, I went downtown to my school to get fitted for my uniform. According to google maps the train that I got on was supposed to have a stop at the street my school is on which is 23rd st. Well, Google maps is a liar... haha, I ended up having to get out on 14th st and walk a few extra blocks. Luckily the rain had stopped so it wasn't too bad of a walk. So, I went to the school and got fitted for my chef's coat and then I got vouchers to go pick up my pants, shoes, and other supplies. I'm going to pick up my supplies tomorrow and then maybe spend some time exploring the city (or vice versa since I don't want to be carrying a bunch of stuff around all day). I think that on Friday I'm going to go visit the MET, which is my favorite part of the city. I figure that I should do it before I get too busy with work and school. Well, I think that's it for now, if you don't see me updating regularly, send me an email to nag me!
Hope you're all well,
Kayla

*note: the above picture is from the trip I took to the city earlier this year, I haven't had a chance to get any pictures just yet!