DINNER 142: Monday, May 22, 2006
Chef Kinsella was unavailable for class (yet again) this evening and we had a substitute instructor — the very-capable Chef Potter. Chef Potter had instructions to administer a test and then take us through a few recipes. I arrived at the normal class time (3:00), forgetting that we’d been told to show up 90 minutes later. Chef Potter was kind enough to let me take my test early while I sat in his class, and what a test it was… 75 questions of material that seemed mostly unfamiliar to me. I had read the assigned chapters and reviewed my notes, but I would have sworn that a lot of these questions were on material we’d never covered. Still, I soldiered on and finished the test with time to spare before the 4:30 start. As I saw my classmates coming in, I told them about the difficulty of the test to come. Books were cracked, note compared, and discussions held before the test.
As it turns out, I’d been given the wrong test (sheesh). The actual test intended for us was only 25 questions and was over material with which I was familiar, so it was pretty easy.
After the test, we got started on our recipes — Smoked Whiskey Shrimp, Palmiers with Proscuitto, Gougiers (cheesy piping-hot puff pastry), and another. It went pretty smoothly, and we were done-and-gone by 8:00.
Steps onto soapbox. I’m not sure what the situation is with the instructors always being on their cell phones during class, but Chef Potter is no less guilty of it than Chef Kinsella. This is perhaps one of the most annoying trends I’ve seen lately at Cincinnati State, and I hope it ends soon. If I had a cell phone and it rang once during class (let alone a bunch of times), I’d be in trouble because the instructor would consider it impolite. I consider it impolite that the same courtesy doesn’t extend the other way. Steps off soapbox.
Dinner this evening was a selection of sandwiches prepared by the students in Chef Potter’s earlier class; subs, tea sandwiches, muffalettas were eagerly consumed by my classmates and myself.