Year 1
Table ServiceDuring the three weeks of Table Service, my class or block were the wait staff during lunch service at our student run restaurant that is open to the public. I had a little bit of fine dining waitstaff training from the two years I spent at my culinary program at my high school, so I was familiar with a lot of things but was still very nervous. After one afternoon shadowing one of the servers I felt comfortable to be on my own.
In the Introduction to Wines, we were exposed to many different kinds of wines and learned the specific differences in flavor and aroma from red wine to white wine. We learned about different varietals, grapes, processes, and history of each type of wine. We did a few wines tastings in class to help us feel the differences of each wine and so we could taste the differences in tannins between red and white wine. |
Sanitation + Food SafetyDuring Sanitation and Food Safety we went through a series of lectures and presentations on proper food safety and sanitation. At the end of the 3 weeks, each student has to show their knife skills and are given a series of knife cuts that they must show on various vegetables and fruit. Students who are not ServSafe Certified must also take the ServSafe test and get at least a 75% to pass.
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Cooking TheoryI was not at all expecting to like this class as a baking and pastry student, but I really enjoyed this class. I liked how we had to be independent at times but Chef Emma was very helpful when I was confused or unsure about the project I was working on. We learned how to make a soup, sauce and stocks from the very beginning. It was nice to have the culinary experience as a baking student because we go to see both sides of the spectrum.
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Bake Shop 1I absolutely loved this class and it may or may not be because I am a baking student. I loved being on dessert station and shaping station. Everyone rotates through the lamination, mixing, quick bread, and bread shaping station. I was one of the lucky ones to get to be on the dessert station with Chef Rachel. I got to make pie dough, cream puffs with chocolate ganache, apple pie filling, and shamrock sugar cookies.
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Plated DessertsDuring Plated Desserts, my classmates and I were responsible for prepping, baking, and plating the desserts during lunch service at NECI on Main Tuesday through Saturday. Each student was responsible for one of the 4 desserts and had to make sure that there was enough parcels prepped for each plate. One person every 3 days was responsible for coming in during the night shift to plate the desserts for the dinner service at NOM. On top of production, each of the students are responsible for creating a special that runs during lunch and dinner service one day.
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Artisan BreadsIn Artisan Breads class, we begin the morning at 5:30 am. Half of the class in responsible for converting recipes to the size batches we need using Bakers Percentages and scaling the ingredients to the converted amount. The other half is responsible for mixing and shaping the doughs after the have benched rested. One person is the baker and bakes all the breads in our ovens. We made many different kinds of breads, bagels, pretzels, and even donuts.
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Basic Pastries
Basic Pastries was one of my favorite classes. From baking and decorating cookies, making delicious tarts, to assembling and decorating cakes, I love waking up every morning for this class. I have learned some much from my Chef and have seen my work improve just by being in the class for 6 weeks.
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