Ninth Week At Pathways

October 16th, 2013 -
This week there was a new addition to our class, there is a new tier of students who have joined. Everything I have learned in Tier 1, they are now learning and also they have to take the Food Handler's test as well. The Tier 2 students are now able to teach Tier 1 students on how to do certain tasks and today I guided four students how to chiffonade Swish Chard correctly. On Tuesday, all of Fresh Starts students learned how to make pretzels from a professional baker and his name is Sam. He taught us how to roll out the pretzel dough and create the perfect pretzel. Everyone took a turn and I was 5th in line to go. I learned that if you let the dough sit out long enough, its called "resting" and it helps the dough stretch. Also, I learned that sodium hydroxide is used to make the pretzels become the color brown. After we made our pretzels, we got to eat them and they were delicious. I have eaten many pretzels and the best are the homemade pretzels. I feel confident enough to make pretzels once again on my own.

Eighth Week At Pathways

October 9th, 2013 -
The culinary program that I am in is broken down into three tiers. In order to move to the next tier, you need to successfully complete tests, quizzes, communication, life skills, gardening, cooking and skill demonstrations, and mise en place (It is a French phrase which means "putting in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients.) This week I graduated from Tier 1 and received my diploma.

 

I learned a lot of new things such as how to wrap a spring roll, fold mousse in the process of making it fluffy, how to become a caterer, and wrap mushroom cakes with panko Japanese bread crumbs. The most exciting moment this week was helping to cater the pre-opening ceremony at Target in San Rafael. I have never served samples to people before and for my first time, I actually thought it was fun and I enjoyed it. I'm always that type of person that's shy around people, but I actually got over that fear and went through with it. I felt nervous at first, but now that I think of it, it's not so bad at all. If you put a smile on your face and believe in yourself, you can do anything you put your mind to. That's exactly what I've done and it helped me a whole lot.

Seventh Week At Pathways

October 2, 2013 -
There were many tips and tricks that I have learned over the week. For instance, I learned that Valencia Oranges are used mainly for juicing and Navel Oranges are used mainly for eating. There was a test today based on sanitation, temperatures, fruits, vegetables, etc. I scored 78%. There were 121 questions and I got 96 correct. Along with the written test, there was another kind of test and that was to perform a bias cut for 4 cups of carrots within 5 minutes and also a small diced cut for 2 cups of carrots in 5 minutes. Before taking these tests, we did prepare and practice how to cut certain styles. On Monday, I learned three different cutting techniques; julienne, small dice and bias. There were only two cuts used in the test and I performed very well. I had some trouble with the small dice, but I'm getting better at it each time I try.