Friday, 9/3/10 – Level 5 Day 19 (Garde Manger)

As the city of New York braced for Hurricane Earl (and then watched it pass by…), I was busy completing my last class in Level 5. It was strange, sharing the kitchen with the Level 6 students who are mere days away from graduation, juggling their cameras as I took pictures of them posing with various chefs, teammates and kitchen equipment. We had about 70 covers, which is a good night that will keep you moving enough to prevent your leg from falling asleep but definitely not enough to cause you to do any significant sweating (unless you're me). We have our dishes down by now and can almost do them on autopilot, so it was smooth sailing.

We're finally coming together as a group and letting our individual personalities show, which is unfortunate because after five weeks of high stress and anxiety we're just now really getting to know each other. We got our group assignments for Level 6, and I couldn't be happier; I'll be with a good friend with whom I haven't yet had a chance to work, an old friend with whom I haven't worked since Level 1 and someone from my current group. I'm hoping we will work together better than my current group, but judging from the names on the list we won't have a problem with organization. I'm starting off in Saucier, which means I'll end in Poissonnier…great practice for our final (which is fast approaching…eeps!).

I decided to live large and grab a beer with a few classmates after school on Friday night. I know…calm down Jackie! We went to the neighborhood joint, and I got to spend some quality time with classmates with whom I don't normally get to socialize. For example, one of my classmates is actually a very accomplished professional cook. I knew he'd recently appeared on two very highly watched food programs: "Grill it! With Bobby Flay" and "Throwdown! With Bobby Flay," but had no idea he had established himself as such an authority. Check out his website, The Food Experiments, where he organizes and runs amateur cooking competitions. Fascinating, right?? Maybe someday I'll gather up enough cajones to enter one of his competitions. Or I could just pretend I'm competing in my own kitchen…that's fun too. Sometimes.

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here on the East Coast hurricane Earl sure brought in some gorgeous weather! It was about 75˚F and sunny all weekend, and we took every opportunity possible to take advantage of the fresh, cool air. We took a long walk up the East River and over to Ward's Island, home to a huge mental institution. I was afraid Steve was going to leave me there, but we quickly took in the sights and headed back to Manhattan. On Labor Day, we rented a car and drove out to the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap, a gorgeous and serene retreat just an hour and a half away from the city. We hiked to the ragged top of the great Mount Tammany, approximately 4 miles up and 1,300 feet in the sky. Even though my brother just hiked Mount Rainier, which is about 14x the size of the trail we did this weekend, it still felt like a great accomplishment. We found our reward at the top of the mountain – a huge natural lake called Sunfish Pond, where we unpacked our lunch sack and enjoyed a few idle minutes of mountain breeze in the peaceful shade. I had read the warnings on the website before going: "WARNING: BEARS! Don't leave food, cross their paths or mention forest fires" blah blah blah, but I never thought much of it. A few fellow hikers told us they saw FIVE bears on their hike, yet we didn't see a single one! I did almost step on a tree snake, though…so that was pretty dangerous I guess. I kept searching for these supposed bears, yet kept tripping on the jagged path so decided to just keep my head down and my mouth shut. It was such a wonderful day, and we'll definitely find ourselves on the Appalachian Trail again. Maybe I'll finally see some bears this time. Then again…nevermind.