My first competency has come and gone... 0

Why was I so anxious? There is this thing I do when I really care about something. I become very nervous, So nervous you could freeze butter in my brain --- due to the frigid state I go to. My body screams "code red" & "all hands on deck".

I am so busy with the anxiety that I don't concentrate on what is happening around me in real time.

Ok.

- maybe that is a bit exaggerated (I luv the Seinfeld characters).

Well I had my competency. I had only been in class for 8 days, so I was thinking to myself that the whole thing would be interesting. It was.

We are assigned to groups, one of these members is a 2nd year management student. The others are 2nd quarter students and me. We rotate to different positions in the bakery. Mind you this is a real working production/retail bakery.

We all knew there was a test. And The head instructor , which is from Denmark & a 4th generation baker, is testing us.

Well we draw from scraps of paper what we will be tested on. We go to pull our doughs (we've made the day before) from the reach-in retarder. No danish dough! There are 4 croissant & 1 puff pastry dough.

We are not supposed to communicate with each other, only the instructor.

But with the dough missing we shoot perplexed glances at each other. Look in the walk-in retarder, the reach-in freezer....we find the danish dough, rock solid in the walk-in freezer.

I run to his office. HE comes in confirms this. Well now we must work with the croissant dough.

I draw "plain croissants" ,

Carl says:

"you know he's going to ream you if you don't do them perfectly --- croissants are his thing"

I didn't do too bad I just forgot to add flour to the top of the dough while sheeting...so we couldn't use all of the dough, because the flour is a lubricant. IF not used while sheeting, the sheeter will "eat" it. There were holes in places -- and you want croissant dough intact(for the layers)

I did make about 20 croissants. He said they weren't half bad. ( I am thanking god right then, because this was only my second time making them).

HE told me to help Suzie. She was scaling out ingredients for Danish dough with a starter. She had everything except the ice water. I got that. We put the fresh yeast and water, and the pieces of ascorbic acid into the 40qt mixing bowl and I hand whisked it, with a wire whisk. We added the dry ingredients. The Hobart was going at 1st speed. Oops , the mixer looked like cookie dough. Suzie forgot the starter, which had been fermenting in the walk-in retarder over night. We added the started but he mixer was too dry and it wasn't congealing, the first mixture was mixed into the starter in big chunks. There was no way to save the dough.We had to throw it out.

Turns out we all screwed up in some form or another. The Instructor even commented that :

"today when you woke up you guys should have went back to bed"

He was chuckling though.

When it was my turn to go into the office. He commented on my croissants. And they weren't that bad. He also said that right now I am along for the ride, by next quarter I will be in the groove of things.

SO after I walked out of there I realized I would do alright. I am no longer anxious, I just want to do well.

People love a chick in uniform! 1

If someone asked me : Have checkered pants, a white bakers shirt/coat and white shoes changed my image to the world???

fulton street, 2004 by joe holmes

I might have to respond with a resounding yes! Everywhere I go now I am talked to or talked at. It has been 4 days of Seinfeld-esque banter. Normally when I am walking somewhere - nothing. I was the George Costanza of my world, wondering and stressing over too little interaction. Now I feel like Kramer - getting noticed. And I don't know how I feel about this.

Round-up: WTF Street Moments ,in Chef Whites, from the week
Here are some of the best excerpts that came up in conversation, from total strangers in various times during the week.


Conversation #1

"hey..I need to ask you something. IT isn't bad. Can you get pregnant after having your tubes tied??I have been eating like a horse. I have felt movement down in "that" area..." 

I was on the bus going downtown, this woman leans across the isle whispering. O.k what is she doing telling me about "that area" ?WTF I am a total stranger.

Conversation #2

"...I bet you even have white socks on under that white uniform huh!..I would never where so much white"

Oh, sorry I guess I look, hmm, like a baker or something? I guess having a career is not a person's knowledge but their clothing.

Conversation #3

"... after work I get wild and dance on tables"

Wow, that's great, I guess?

Conversation #4

"Oh what a stupid hat...No really I love it"

Very cute -- I hope all your little friends had a great laugh.

Conversation #5

street photography By Kreative Eye - Dean McCoy

"...damn car...I spent money on a new battery, sucked the juice right out of it..Spent $150 dollars on a brand new alternator, the damn car shorted it out. That's my Merry Christmas"

This guy was nice, but for some reason he told me his car saga for like 10-15 minutes. I couldn't leave because I waiting for the bus.

Conversation #6

"...Is your name Lisa? You look like someone I know"

I get mistaken for someone at least once a day. It must be the face.

Conversation #7

" I don't cook for a living anymore, from my experience it is one big assembly line - especially if you work for The Hilton...This pays better"

O.k well I am not going to cook, I am going to bake. I actually like what I am doing, it isn't for the money.

Conversation #8

"...god I have been craving a corn dog all day - your uniform makes me even hungrier...Mexicans and Russians make tons of kids and live in a 2 bedroom apt..Asians are made for breeding."

This is the most IGNORANT thing I have heard in a while. I am so tired of people with no tact, or compassion. Poor folks are poor folks. This is 2005 and there we go with perpetuating of stereo types. Maybe you should maybe, I don't know learn a different culture?

Conversation #9

Bus Stop By Maurizio Costanzo - mavik2007

" ..please say this [a Russian woman hands me a Russian to English electronic translator, I speak several words and simplify them]...say "Babooska" - you "young girl", I am old babooska. In Russian "heavy" is lighter...[she laughs a throaty laugh]"

This woman was very kind. She was trying to better her English, and since I helped her she wanted to share her Language with me. Very cool.

Conversation  #10 (I say this loosely as I wasn't a participant)

As angry as I get by Erika Hall

" I had Hep C and thyroid problems --- but JESUS healed them, he saved my LIFE!!!"

Holy S*** , I am walking a side street, and about to cross the street, when a women driving some big '80's boat, comes half way out the window - looking at me and yelling, while the car is still moving.

She kept screaming this over & over.

O.k Jesus is great --- but guess what, Jesus might not want you to run over someone, or get into a car accident. What Would Jesus do? Pull over and  STOP THE CAR! Before exclaiming divine measures have taken place.

(Image on right is not actual picture of person, used for demonstration purposes)