#14 - Wounds of battle

Too tired to write much - it is late and my finger hurts.  More later this week, but as promised, here are some pictures of my pretty, pretty knives (just the most interesting ones)... if you look really carefully, you may be able to see my initials engraved on the blades.

Today we made glazed vegetables (not enough butter and sugar so no glaze), turned turnips (totally undercooked), tomato concasse (undercooked) and duxelles mushrooms (chopped up really small and cooked with shallots, butter and a couple of other things, quenelled - which means you do fancy stuff to it with two spoons and hope it doesn't fall apart before Chef tastes it) - underseasoned...I would put up a photo except I didn't take one.  Not enough time!

Gross Stuff (aka don't look if you are squeamish)

And here's a picture of my first cut:

Conversation went something like this:

Chef D:  All right everyone, no more cuts today!  We've used up our quota of one cut!

Me (a few moments later):  Chef!  (Looking at the lack of a nail on half of the tip of my finger and thinking, wow, that kind of sucks, but maybe it's not that bad, there's no blood...oh wait, there it goes.)

Chef D:  That's not so bad.  Go wash off the debris and we'll get you a plaster.

(The band aid was bright blue - so that if you drop it in the food you can see it and fish it out.  He also showed me the scars on his left index finger - scars from several cuts which had obviously been quite deep.  Yikes!)

Me:  I kind of need that finger, Chef.  It's the fingering hand for my violin.

Chef D:  Can't you play with a band aid on?

Me:  Um, not really.  The size of the band aid makes a difference.  (Not to mention it hurts to put pressure on it and we still have most of the cooking, plating and cleaning up to do.)

The initial cut didn't hurt and it took a little while for the blood to well up.  It hurts a bit now and washing my hair was a bit complicated.  Must remember to get blue band aids and a finger condom from Reception at the school tomorrow.  Yes, they really do look like condoms - only thing is, I think they're made for bigger hands.  Mine kind of fell off - luckily it was after class so I know it wasn't in the food!

Sigh...suffering for my love of food.  Tomorrow we make sauces and basic stocks.

Some bitching and moaning

Oh, I forgot.  I was one of two sous chefs today.  The other one left immediately after she got her feedback.  The lift was broken - it went up to the 3rd floor and stayed there.  Luckily the things I had to carry down were light so Chef M (who was just starting the advanced Patisserie class) didn't have to help me down to the basement.  I just hope it's fixed before roast chicken on Wednesday.  And we have a class after our practical on Wednesday - how's that going to work with our cooked chickens and a 3 hour class after?  Hmmm...but if we're clever, that's dinner...

So until next time - be careful with those knives!