Another Mile Marker

Having finished Garde Manger, we're one quarter of the way through the school part of the program, and so today might well be considered our last day as freshmen.

By eleven am, there were only five students left in our classroom, everyone else having either not shown up (five) or left early (four). Andrea brought her iPod and the portable speaker dock, so we had cool music all morning, after Chef did one last watermelon carving. We paused at nine am for Eggs Benedict — Andy handled the eggs and I made a quart of perfect hollandaise, if I do say so myself. Chef Duffy said, "Chef Joseph would be proud."

This was a day of finishing up and tearing down and cleaning. I glazed slices of the country pork paté with aspic made from reduced chicken stock. It ended up on a large meat tray that Derrick put together. I took a break to put breakfast together, then did some knife work with a honeydew, carving out the same kind of flowers and leaves that I painted on my bedroom wall when I was in eighth grade. There was music, there was swingin' and swayin'.

After the core team cleaned up the kitchen, Chef Duffy presented us with "trophies": pints of Häagen-Dazs (Sticky Toffee Pudding flavor, appropriate as he's a Brit) and bags of Nestlé's dark chocolate baking chunks. "Thanks for sticking around to the bitter end," he said, as we took turns shaking his hand. "Isn't that what we're paying for?" I asked.

It's a beautiful day and the weekend forecast is promising, and Monday is a holiday. David was off today and when I got home, I told him I missed him, and asked if we could spend the weekend together. "I don't know," he said. "I have a wife."