That smells!

Hello again,

 I really enjoyed todays class! We got to know each other by standing up to talk about ourselves. I don't even remember what I said..probably all lies muahahaha!

 Then we did a little game where he wanted to test our knowledge about names of pastries and such. He wrote 30 things on the board and we had to write down the definition. My partner and I did well, we got 20. Not the best in the class, but not the worst. This is going to be such a fun year, when he was talking I could not get enough information in to my brain. The difference between a sorbet, sherbet and ice cream. The difference between a sorbet and a sherbet is the use of dairy. Usually milk or eggs. The difference between "normal" chocolate and couverture chocolate is that the latter has more coco butter so it tends to be more runny, which you need when you are bending and rolling. I just can not get enough! I NEED to know! knowledge! Feed me knowledge!

 But the most fun part of today was the smell test! He said we rely way to much on our sense of sight and we need to be able to use our sense of smell only to identify our ingredients. example, Ground hazelnuts and ground almonds look the same, we need to be able to taste and identify, if we can't it might turn in to a disaster. I was very proud of myself in this one! I have a pretty good sniffer! I got 19 out of 26 right. Here are some I was able to identify just by smell.

• green pepper              
• apple
• curry
• rosemary
• coffee
• cocoa
• anis star
• cloves
• molasses
• lavender
• coconut
•  lemon    
• nutmeg
• banana
• saffron
• mint
• cinnamon
• peanut butter
• ginger

Now you might read those and think "okay that is insanely easy" and some were. lemon, apple, green pepper..very easy to identify right away. But others you smell and without being able to look at it its quite difficult. I was the only one who got saffron, but i cant take full credit Chef helped a touch. I was clutching this cup because I wanted to get it and he walked by and I handed it to him and he smelled it and said "oh yes.." and I said "well of course you know.." and he gave me the hint "think of spain and flowers and price" and with that I knew what it was. But the smell alone I probably wouldn't of gotten it.

Now the ones I got wrong . First one what I wrote, second is the correct answer.

• macadamia nuts = hazel nuts. At least I knew it was a nut. 
• white chocolate = vanilla bean. Thats a "doh!" moment. 
• Vanilla = rosewater. It didn't smell like roses, it was very sweet. 
• cranberry = raspberry puree. close..
• Pineapple juice = passion fruit. Never would of guess passion fruit. 
• Lime = cardamon 
• Molasses = honey. I hate honey and molasses so I ended up writing molasses twice. gross smell.   

So that was super fun! Can't wait to get in that kitchen on tuesday and eat!..i mean..cook. cook.

He talked to us about our uniforms and that if the pants are to long we need to get them hemmed. We are not to show up with duct tape around our ankles to keep them off the floor. Nor are we allowed to staple them up. Both things that have been done before. Hilarious. So I took my pants in today to get done.

 I finally got my macpass in the mail, so I get to test this thing out tomorrow. Im fully expecting it not to work and for me to get stuck in the cue. It'll happen. And on monday we are starting at 730 which right now I'm fine with because maybe it means I will beat the horrible bridge traffic and make it there in less than half hour.

 I'm not sure there will be a posting tomorrow. We are doing our food safety course all day and its not all that exciting. we shall see though.

night!

If you want to have some fun set up a smell test for someone and see how many they can get right! might be harder than you think.