I signed up for cooking class

Mac and cheese to Michelin star

Dear reader,

I’m back and I have exciting news to share. Over the holidays, my friend Nadine and I signed up for a cooking course at George Brown (not sponsored). It’s a 12-week course, running from 6-10 once a week and I am pumped. My mom took this class when she first moved to Toronto almost 40 years ago and she raved about it. She’s an excellent chef so I figured the course did a good job.

My current cooking skills.

I took this class because–despite my desire for a miracle nutrient pill or IV I can take to not have to worry about food–I realized I have to eat multiple times every day for the rest of my life, so I might as well enjoy the process. I can cook–and I’m not half bad–but when I’m in the kitchen, my lizard brain kicks in… I get weird, overwhelmed, and I take a loooong time. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I generally stay in my comfort zone, which, to put it nicely, is boring.

The Uniform.

Nadine and I went a day early to pick up our uniforms.

• Chef Jacket (short sleeve) - Nadine and I were a size 2XS (skinny!!!!)

• Chef Pants (striped)

• Chef Hat (yes, that kind of chef hat, it’s made of paper)

• Non-Slip Steel-Toed Black Leather Shoes. I was not prepared to pay $100 for these.

  

The first class: Stocks

No cooking yet - it was basically like syllabus week. After waiting for our less-proactive classmates to pick up their uniforms, we took a tour of the whole building, then watched Chef Jill prepare four different stocks: Chicken Stock, Beef Stock, Fish Stock, and a vegetarian Dashi.

One of the perks of the class is you get fed by the chef during the class and you also take home the meal you make (hell yeah, leftovers). This week’s meal was broth so it was a pretty light dinner, and I managed to burn my tongue on all of them. We also learned basic kitchen safety - how to carry your knives, announce when you’re walking around with something hot by saying “hot…hot…hot…hot”, she didn’t teach us BEHIND or CORNER like they say in The Bear, but I’m hoping this comes up soon.

Allergies

Chef asked if anyone had any allergies and the room was pretty quiet until a girl said cilantro. Duuuuude.

The Tools

There’s a list of 20+ tools required for the class, but luckily for me, Chef was brutally honest about what we need and don’t, many of which we can bring from home. Off I trudged–through the city’s largest snowstorm–to the kitchen store, Nella. Reasonably priced, high quality stuff - highly recommend.

In the process of taking the sticker off my large chef’s knife, I skimmed my thumbnail leaving a healthy dent. I figured I shouldn’t be trusted to carry this on the subway weekly, so I opted to rent a locker.

The Locker Incident

The school’s locker portal has taken a big fat dump and won’t let me rent a locker. Unfortunately for the locker services worker, I am very persistent via email. After 5 emails were exchanged citing the portal’s failure, they assigned me a locker, but wouldn’t take payment over the phone, “We don’t have a phone, come in person, our hours are 10am-3pm”. Cut to me, trudging 20 minutes each way to campus in the middle of the work day to pay them $25. Guess what? She had a phone. Turns out it was an IT issue (as I suspected the whole time) preventing non-full-time students from renting lockers. Gee whiz.

Anyway, I’ve finished three classes now so I’m pretty behind on getting these posts up. haha. behind.

Stay tuned, friends. Next post: Salad.

Cheers,

Siobhan Burnt Tongue