A Little Behind on the Blogging

It's been pretty busy lately so I've gotten a little behind on the blogging. Sorry about that! So here's the scoop from the past week or so:

All is Quiet on the Exam Front

We've had to take one big exam and a quiz recently and I've passed both of those. Hooray! I wish I did a little better on the exam though. Also, we finally received our results from the ServSafe certification exam that we took the second week of school. Everyone in the class passed and received their certificates, so that is very good news for all. We have one more quiz on Monday (after Thanksgiving) and things will start to get cookin' — literally. Unfortunately, the quiz will be covering measurements and formula cost equations. Math. Goody. I just barely have a grip on the concept, so hopefully Monday's quiz won't have any unpleasant surprises that will lead my mathematically-challenged mind to a failing grade.

Written Reports and Pathetic Presentations

This week our class had to turn in a paper and give a ten-minute presentation on important figures in the culinary world. Our subjects were chosen by drawing and included such notable figures as Escoffier, Le Nôtre and Ewald Notter.

I drew Antoine Carême, the oldest of our research subjects and the first celebrity chef. I actually enjoyed researching Carême because he was such a fascinating person and he made such a huge impact on the culinary world. He was known as the "Chef of Kings and the King of Chefs" because of his many years of service to royalty (he baked Napoleon's wedding cake!) and his extraordinary ability to create elaborate art pieces from sugar. He is also credited for writing the first cookbook, creating haute cuisine and inventing the chef hat. Interesting, huh?

I really enjoyed writing the paper, but presenting it is another story. I am TERRIBLE at giving presentations. I am definitely not skilled at spontaneously forming concise, well-structured sentences in a timed, formal presentation with just some notes. Add a sprinkle of nervousness and the whole report feels like organized chaos in my head that comes out of mouth as random facts. Put me in a casual setting and I can prattle on about Carême easily, but trying to recite the majority of my paper without reading from it is just stressful. Plus, I tend to talk fast as it is and I talk even faster when I'm nervous. I swear I did my 10-minutes in about 5. I just hope the whole thing didn't look as awkward as I felt it did. I'm pretty confident that I wrote a strong, solid paper and my celebrity tabloid-style handout on Carême was fun. Hopefully that will compensate for my pathetic presentation skills!