Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone

Today was the last day of lecture for the week. We learned mostly about food science/technology. A lot of it had been covered at Owens, but I think review is always good. And the instructors (Chef Scott and Chef Josh) have a lot of great stories that do (and sometimes do not) go along with the lecture. Let's be clear, though, the tangential stories were usually about the industry. Or about food somehow. Let's face it, everyone sitting in that room is slightly obsessed with food. Mostly pastry. And baking.

One cool thing I learned this week that I think I can share is how Scoville units are calculated for hot sauce and peppers. Turns out it was just some dude named Scoville had people eat peppers and used a spray bottle filled with sugar water to spray on their tongue. The number of sprays it took to relieve the heat and pain was the number of units the pepper would receive. Or so says Chef Scott.

Tomorrow Roomie and I will be heading back to the school to volunteer for the French Pastry Experience. We have to be ready by 8:15. That's practically late considering how "early" I've had to be at school all of this week. Although it's really late compared to when classes start for Roomie. She has to be ready to go, standing in front of the kitchen at 6:40 AM.

Although, to be honest, as soon as I find a job, I'll probably be operating on similar hours.

I'm excited, and nervous, and ready to start learning. I'm trying to put everything I learned at Owens at the back of my mind. It doesn't matter how I've been taught to do sugar or cake decorating or breads in the past, the information the instructors will provide will be from many different perspectives. That's unique and to make the most of it I need to be as receptive as possible to all the different methods I will be shown.

The title of my post is something that came to mind while Chef Josh was lecturing. He was trying to stress the importance of being nervous for something, so he spoke about the first time he went sky-diving. To him, being nervous was a good thing because it meant that whatever you were about to try doing was important, in one way or another.

I couldn't help but think of a quote I ran across on Pinterest (where else?) that is the title of this post. It was comfort to me when I was freaking out over moving to Chicago. I knew I was tired of Suburbia and living with my parents and wondering what life would be like in a large city. Even though I was terrified of going to an area with a higher crime rate, more chances to really crash and burn, I knew that if I didn't take that chance I would question it forever.

Next week classes start in the kitchen. I get to learn how to use a knife, make pastry cream, and all sorts of things all over again.

Yay, pastry cream!

I really love pastry cream.