Urban Myth?

Did Michael Chiarello, on the Food Channel, actually make a dessert by rolling balls of vanilla ice cream in Tang?? I couldn't find any reference to it on Snopes. Surely it's not true!

Well, our kitchen math projects are due on Thursday, the entire assignment is underway and will all be completed in class, and the folks who have been missing days are really having trouble right now. Chef Stephanie clearly has no patience for repeating herself: while she's totally helpful with questions that arise on current work, she will not go backwards to explain the parts of the project that you missed if you were absent. She expects that you will catch up by applying yourself and working collaboratively with your classmates when necessary. Not surprisingly, though, the people who need help are all part of the "we miss school a lot" clique, and they're not much use to one another. Those of us who are up to speed are helpful to varying degrees. Andy is always generous with his time. Andrea sends out a different vibe. I'm not much of a helper either. "You made that bed..." I guess I've been a mother too long.

And I value this whole experience too much. I'm reminded again from the advice we got during orientation on the first day: when you leave school, you take what you learn. Your classmate will not be standing next to you, on the job, to help out if you're unclear on the concept.

So our final project will consist of a menu with pricing, recipes (Chef gave us each a random number of servings to prepare: I'm expecting 73 for breakfast), a purchase order, a cover sheet, a cover letter (requesting a 50% deposit), and a pricing calculator, which we will build in class. Today, we began working on the purchase order (using a standard list of products and prices, supplied by the Chef) but we'll be learning how to use The Book of Yields in order to finish this part of the project. For example, I need about 7 cups of flour for my ginger biscotti, but flour comes in a fifty-pound bag. And, no, that saying "A pint is a pound, the world around" just isn't true!