Team Wet Dog

bread dreams, nightmares

I dream about bread.

It's this damn class, which moves at a feverish pace most days. From the time we walk in the class, we're behind schedule — make the sweet roll dough and let it rest. Proof the white bread, then mix the biscuits, roll them out, cut and bake. Start working on the Danish dough, which is similar to puff pastry and thus a long process. Make pie cream, meringue, apple filling.

And so on ...

In my dreams, this class would be about perfection. It  would be more about learning to do something simple — like make loaves of bread — but also learning to do it right. It would be about details and patience, and making the same loaf over and over until we have it right.

I talked to the chef in the second week of class. I said, "Is there any way we can slow down?  Making four to six items a night, it just gets to be throwing ingredients together and hoping for the best."

His response was intelligent and logical and not a bit apologetic, which I suppose makes sense. He explained that the Art Institute, faced with a choice between giving students either "exposure or experience," chose the former.

In a way, this makes sense. If you're trying to turn out employable folks, I suppose there's more value in being able to say "I've made 200 different items" as opposed to "I made five items, but perfectly."

Still, it's not what I had hoped for. Still, it's not my decision to make. But it does have me questioning next quarter — if the more advanced cooking class is all about pushing through X number of recipes a night, if it's more about getting It done than learning about It, then I wonder if it's worth it.

A part of me says "continue on."  I'll be two-thirds done at that point, and with some sort of certificate in sight, it seems like I would be a fool to stop. And yet another part of me thinks that is a coward's logic, hoping to avoid regret.

I didn't come to this school for a diploma — I came to learn. And if and when that learning stops happening, then it would seem my reason for being here is also over. And that doesn't even begin to approach the financial aspects.

I'll give it time. I plan to finish this class, look back and think about what I've learned. I also want to talk to the chef in charge of the Art Institute's culinary program, and see what he says about the next quarter.

I dream about bread lately, and I just feel like it's my mind going back into yesterday's work, the stuff we did quickly, at times haphazardly, and maybe trying to cull those memories for any bits of learning and experience it can get.

It's a thought, anyway.

— Robert

(10/26/06) 
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