Sarah 4m 963
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
We all are fond of good tasty yummy food, aren’t we? Yes we are and at the same time we think a chefs life is so cool. They can make anything anywhere they want. Yummy cuisines, pizzas pastas, fish, meat, and chicken dishes, and much more.
During childhood days I used to stay with my mom in kitchen and ask her how she cooked this or that. I was curious about the ingredients in food. As I grew up, I thought I’d become a chef for my chosen career. I would be able to learn so many new things and cook food for my friends and family. I couldn’t wait to see them boast over the cuisines and special dishes I would be making.
So I decided I would become a Chef. I received my first kitchen assignment “Cutting Vegetables.” I was happy to do and it would only take me a few minutes. I took the knife and started with tomatoes and then came potatoes. Then I sliced 4-5 more vegetables.
Instead of giving me compliments, my teacher scolded me. “Sarah are you out of your mind. This is a professional Chef course. It’s not your Mom’s kitchen and you cannot cutting it in any way you want.” She took the plate of my vegetables and threw it away in the trash. I was so disappointed. How could she do that?
So one of my friends gave me advice on being very precise for a proper cutting knife. I learned quickly that mistakes help us to learn. As the year passed, I faced more challenges and this time they were difficult. The assignment given to us was making a birthday cake. I was not very tense since making cake is easy and only requires a few things. I started off with dough. As soon as the dough was prepared I put it in oven for baking and then I started to work on the cake cream, wafer biscuits, etc. After some time I was so busy with the cream that I forgot about the cake. I ran towards the oven. There was a bad smell from the burnt cake. I was shocked to see that cake had become black. “Why always me!?” I was blaming myself about how careless I was and not able to do anything properly. I cried. All my hard work was gone from a single mistake. I was able to bake a new cake in the time allowed and I passed the assignment.
I still made plenty of mistakes in my mission to become a top chef, adding too much salt or sometimes no salt at all, sometimes making something too spicy or adding too much spice to something. I made many mistakes along the way. This is what chefs are all about when they are first learning but once they are in their career, they make awesome food.
The time came and I graduated Chef school and became an official chef. I worked in a small restaurant which gave a kick start to my career. I used to get orders to make simple food and sometimes more complicated recipes. Being a chef, we have to make everyone happy.
One weekend, I was making something special for my friends who came over to my place. I decided to make pizza for them so I started with my work and there was a really cute guy in our friend’s circle. I used to have a good time with him and he came into the kitchen and asked, “Hey Sarah how you doing?” I was getting bored so I started to have a talk with him then we went up to balcony for a great conversation and good fun. A few minutes later, I noticed a burning smell. I shouted “My Pizza! Not again! Why always me!?” Four pizzas were burnt completely black.
I was stunned for a moment wondering why this always happen to me. All my friends came into the kitchen and saw the pizzas burnt and started laughing. “Sarah you are not a chef! You are the ‘Burning Chef’!” They started making fun of me. I was really embarrassed. We ended up ordering food from an outside place and everything went back to normal.
One day I saw an advertisement for a Chef position at the Grand Hotel. I daydreamed of getting the job, all my dreams will be fulfilled. So I figured I’d give it a shot. I reached the hotel and asked about the opening. I was told there are already 10 chefs applying for the position, “Are you sure you want to apply?”
I said “Yes” so I went in with my Chef toolkit and out came the hotel owner. “Warm welcome to all at the Grand Hotel. We are looking for quality Chefs for our hotel who are talented and experienced.”
He gave all of us a task and said a guest had come from other country and he wanted us to make a dish that would impress the guest. He mentioned no other details about the guest, not even what country they were from. We all began our mission. I decided to make Fried Fish since that was my favorite.
As time passed all chefs were really working hard to get their food ready. I had just finished preparing my dish as we were all told to get ready. The guest arrived. She was some lady from India and a vegetarian.
“Oh my god why always me!?” I thought to myself. My dish was rejected since it was a non-vegetarian dish. You can never be too sure of what to cook in the kitchen. As I have come to learn through my many mistakes, a chefs life is not always easy.
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