Back in the Saddle Again

Andre woke up during the night shrieking! I’m not sure what was wrong but for some reason I feel less alert and less affected by the noise. I accidentally slept in. It was nice to feel welcomed by the kids who eagerly jumped into my bed with me calling out my name.

“Jona-fin!”

“Uncle Jona-fin!”

Cute. I ate and quickly threw my things together after a nice shower. I hardly felt ready for my first day but figured I wouldn’t need too much preparation for the first day. On my way to Lab 2, I passed by Chef Guillard but we only spoke for a mere 10 seconds or so. I entered Lab 2 and was immediately struck by the vastness of this new home. The room has vaulted ceilings which gives the illusion that the square footing is significantly larger than Lab 3. Perhaps it is. The demo station is located near the entrance (opposite from Lab 3) and the stations are in the rear, closest to the large windows that fill the entire back wall and provide a more thorough view of Green Street. The passerby’s have a better view inside Lab 2 than they ever had in Lab 3 (which is probably planned since we are now more experienced bakers—ahem). I found myself overly excited to reunite with my fellow students. I contemplated giving hugs but decided to hold to myself since no one else seemed to be as thrilled.

We started class with a getting-to-know-you session. Our new chef is Chef Lora. She is young and quite pretty. Chef Knight had told us that she is “the best bread chef on campus.” It did not take long for us to sense just how knowledgeable she is about breads. We each gave our why-we-are-in-culinary-school spiel and moved straight into our lecture. Whoa! Chef Lora is incredible! I had five pages of notes in no time. We learned more about the differences of flours, the anatomy of wheat grains, the four major yeasts, bread fermentation, protein percentages, the twelve baking steps for bread, and baker’s percentages. Maybe the list seems rather small, but we’re talking in depth details about the magic (science rather) behind the process of making bread. I was rather enthralled by the lecture—asked too many questions perhaps. Either way, I immediately acquired respect for Chef Lora and am looking forward to learning about breads under her tutelage.

Following the lecture she gave a demonstration on French Baguettes. Her dough will be fermenting overnight and we will start baking tomorrow. We mise-ed our ingredients for baguettes and cater-wrapped our supplies for tomorrow’s first day of baking. I can’t wait to try her baguette tomorrow and then try to do it ourselves. I have learned to take meticulous notes and find the right things to scribble out during demonstration—how many bowls they use, the changes in tools, the way it’s mixed, the way it’s kneaded, the most subtle details that anyone could easily miss or maybe forget to do while attempting to recreate.

After class, I was so happy to return home! No more sanitation—which means getting out of class at 1:30 rather than 3:00. I came home and ate leftover pizza. I studied the scriptures for an hour before starting on my homework. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I was endlessly bombarded with memories from my own two years of service. Yolanda prepared a delicious Potato Cheese Soup and I bought a green leaf salad and fresh baguette which was warmed before the missionaries arrived. Needless to say, it was delicious! Before the missionaries left they shared a thought. I don’t think they had specifically planned anything thought to share with us, but one quote that Elder Richins shared with us was particularly meaningful to me.

“Eternal things are always done in the process of time . . . Direction is initially more important than speed.” Neal A. Maxwell

Perhaps it is my lack of patience or my inability to feel like I am doing everything I would like to do. Whatever the case, this quote made me feel more at peace with the fact that I’m heading in the direction that I want to be heading in and that is more important (initially) than the rate at which I am trying to accomplish all these things I would like to do and accomplish. Maybe I didn’t effectively articulate my thought processes, but take it for what it’s worth!

The rest of the night was spent studying and deciding exactly how I would like to conquer this next module (meaning, how do I want to organize myself after having already experienced a six-week module at the LCB). I look forward to the coming weeks! I need to find a job—yikes. Oh, I looked up my grades. 4.0! Yay! Okay, I’m out.