Summer Break!

We're on summer break this week, a welcome respite from class.  We were in the cold garde manger room for the past six weeks, for garde manger and for international, but when we get back we're starting off in Ventana, which is the fine dining restaurant on the school premises.  We'll do 6 weeks at Ventana, 3 in back of the house and 3 in front of house - so I'll get to see whether I can still wait tables worth a shit.

Ventana's schedule is bananas.  Class starts at 3:30, not the normal 5:30, and goes to 11pm.  I got special permission from my boss to leave my day job early in order to make it to school on time, provided I stay up on my work and put some hours in on Saturdays.  Kinda sucks but I had no other choice; I had already pursued tons of avenues at the school, talking with the head chef, the director of admissions, the VP of student affairs, I really tried to make this work without having to affect work, but it wasn't possible.  Some of my friends have strict jobs, like veterinary jobs and demanding office jobs, project management, I just hope they can make it work like I did.  I still feel like I'm about to enter a whole new circle of hell here, with 10 additional hours of school per week.

Ventana has a nice menu, and it'll be fun to be in a kitchen, rather than a lab.  Our labs have lacked time pressure and the urgency of a kitchen, as well as the teamwork and need to stay organized.  Messes have been okay in lab.  Poor communication has been okay in lab.  None of this will work in a restaurant setting, you must execute, communicate well, and be clean.  Some students will do just fine, but there's a few who just might shit themselves.  And Ventana isn't anywhere near as high pressure as other restaurants.

But all that's for next week.  What's amazing is that everything is working out.  Every obstacle has worked itself out with some faith, some creativity, and some elbow grease.  Staging, scheduling, externship, my real job, the kids, Ventana.  Everything has worked out.  To me that is proof positive that chasing a dream is worth it, and that it'll work itself out.  Having faith is an idea that has fallen out of vogue with my generation, but there's something to be said for optimism.