"yes chef, sorry chef, thank you chef"

The title of this entry just about says it all. During all of my classes we respond with "yes chef", "sorry chef", or "thank you chef". I have been going for 3 days and cooking 9 hours each day, and yes even Saturday. I have been having so much fun. Vinaigrettes, mayonnaise (making it makes me never want to eat it again), pastry creams, meringue cookies, and the most expensive fruit salad known to man kind. We started pastry class on Wednesday and I am getting to work with some incredible ingredients. I learned how to cut a papaya and other exotic fruits that I have never even heard of before. I also learned how to turn half of an apple into a swan...thats right a swan! We made a fruit salad, which sounds super easy, but no. We had to make a simple syrup infused with some of the yummiest spices you will ever smell and cut the fruits in very specific ways...it took us almost 2 hours to make our fruit salads if that gives you any idea. We were able to be a little creative with our plating and that was so much fun. The pastry chef is so nice and she is very talented.
Thursday was my test on vinaigrettes and a few salads, the head chef said "oh wow thats actually quite good". I am taking that as a good thing, but every chef I have keeps saying the same thing to me. I am not sure if I should take that comment as I am doing a good job, or that their expectations were low and I happened exceeded them haha! I did not get home until 10:30 that night, so all I had for dinner was my fruit salad from class. We also learned how to make cocktail sauce and different mayonnaise's, along with the salads we have to put them on. It is funny sometimes you just don't think about how much labor goes into making mayonnaise, its actually quite a science...you also realize how bad it is for you after you make it.
Friday was a pastry filled day. I loved every minute of it! I learned how to make different varieties of pastry cream, which is basically heaven mixed with butter. That has been my most challenging task yet. Measuring the milk, getting it to the perfect temperature, add the sugar at the perfect time, making sure the butter is just the right consistency, and on it goes. We also started to learn how to pipe shapes. We made meringue cookies and piped them out making hearts, shells, and other little squiggles. After we baked them, we got to decorate them, dip them in chocolate, and put the fresh 'creme mousseline' (Kirsch flavored pastry cream) in-between two of the meringues. The danger with those things is that I brought them home...and they are the perfect size to pop in your mouth. I think I did my personal best during this exam, because once again the chef said "oh wow that is actually quite good". Didn't get home until late last night as well, so I had a granola bar for dinner...ironic that I am training in culinary school and I cant even make myself dinner. Friday night I also got to try to do laundry for the first time and that was an adventure. I cant believe I didn't ruin anything. The washer and dryer are in the basement and there are mouse traps in basically every corner downstairs. London is a big city and I know that those little critters can be a problem, but I was on 'high alert' when I was down there. Every sound I heard I thought was a mouse running at me.
Saturday we had a health and safety seminar all day. It was actually pretty interesting. Hopefully I passed the test this afternoon, so I can get my health and safety license. London is under a blanket of snow, which is very rare apparently. I walked through part of Hyde Park this afternoon on my way back to my dorm and everything looks like a fairy tale. All the beautiful buildings are covered with a dusting of snow. A few people I have met in the dorms and I are going to go take pictures of it tomorrow. About to go out with some friends from the dorm, more to come tomorrow.
PS...my julianne carrots are still too thick