Week 2 began with a massive respiratory infection. Ugh!! Washing my hands became ‘Monkish’ and I was constantly spraying the elbow area of my Chef coat with disinfectant. Cold medication and I are less than copacetic. It made for some interesting conversation; I pulled back on my salt content and brought a bottle of AirBorne for my fellow students.

When one spends a considerable amount of time with a small group of individuals, you can either love it or um, not love it. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m totally diggin’ it. A kitchen needs to be cohesive to function at its best; and although we are all on our own separate journey, we are a team and a good one.

Personalities are emerging as we get more comfortable with each other and Chef Maccherola is an absolute hoot. I’ve started keeping a log of what I call, “Maccisms”. His one liners are epic and he is a self-proclaimed blurter; an attribute we share. Example: When we queried about the use of lye, Chef blurts, “I like to bury dead people in it!” Or, out of the blue, “I used to eat 6 ding dongs a day!” I haven’t laughed so hard or had so much fun in ages. And yes, this is culinary school.

I was talking with Tucson (Chef nicknamed her that ~ it stuck) and she said, “I really love the culinary part of everything, but I can’t imagine skinning something.” I lost it. Angel started out pretty much angelic; operative word being ‘started’. She’s a very soft spoken, teeny little thing. When asked why she was attending ACI she expressed in a voice barely above a whisper, “I just like to cook.” Even though she still speaks softly, Angel has surfaced as our resident, dry humored, smart ass. Awesome!! She actually challenged Chef Macc to a piping contest.

Okay, here’s that French thing again. Much of our culinary vernacular originates from those guys across the pond and the pronunciation of such can be challenging. Many who know me well call me the ‘grammar girl’ and that extends to proper diction. I get kind of squirmy unless I correct it. Poissonier (pwah so nyay) does not have an ‘r’ sound attached at the end, it even says so in our 8 inch thick book. Neither does Garde Manger, Entremetier or Saucier. I consulted Chef Rigolet (no “T”) and he explained that it’s a matter of the masculine versus the feminine in the French language and he suggested that it’s best to keep it all in one gender. Let’s just say that whenever Chef comes across one of these terms, he rolls his eyes, looks at me and allows me to enunciate. Yes, I’m that annoying.

My cold is much better and rest assured I sanitized all my uniforms. However, on Thursday I was on so many drugs I could barely think. Case in point: Chef was demonstrating a metal ravioli template and he said, “So, what do you think the most important aspect of this tool is?” With all seriousness and a straight face I blurted, “You can put it in the dishwasher.” He rolled his eyes, threw out a one liner and we all lost it.