Me? A cook? har har...

When I found out that I didn't get into the university to study history and that instead I would go to a cook school the reaction was shattering. All the people that know me left their jars hanging wide open and after the shock started laughing..*lol*.Okay, I admit. I never was the cook at home. I still ain't. I hardly knew how to make sauce for minced meat. But I guess that was just A GOOD reason for me to go to that school. So I did.*s*

Where do I study?

I studied in the 3rd or 4th biggest city in Finland called Turku. It is situated in the south-west coast.The name of that school is Turku Vocational Institute and I studied in it's hotel and restaurant department. There are other departments where you can graduate as a hairdresser, make-up artist or a cleaner. As you can see yourself - I studied in the best department..*lol*. My old school actually has a website and eventhough it's totally boring I'll put it up here-->ttaol.fi .

What was our school like?

We had about 350 students in that deparment so it wasn't a very big school, but cosy *s*. We had an operating restaurant called Alabama (don't ask me why the name..*dazzled herself too*) where all students can practise. Us, cooks in the kitchen and the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant. We had also 2 other small lunch cafeteria's and a cafe that are open for people and mostly run with free labour..us.*lol*

What do my studies include?

In 1996 when I started my studies there I had some kitchen, some catering and a lot of small subjects like english, finnish, swedish, french, maths, psychology, and computers (my fav).The second year I had chosen the kitchen as my main subject. So I had kitchen 3 days a week. 2 days in the warm kitchen and 1 in the cold kitchen. On other days we had microbiology, maths, computers and cooking theory. And in the middle we had a lot of working in shifts in Alabama and outside our school in independent restaurants too.

My graduation..

If everything goes as planned, and they will, I will be a cook-ready to operate on the 30th May 1998. But first I have to attend classes (achum..had some difficulties there but it's getting better now..).Get through my exams like microbiology (easy), buying and restoraging (tough one), maths (not too bad 1+1=2 I'm good, huh?*lol*),special diets (fifty-fifty)and then....the OH SO HORRIFYING PRO SEMINAR *lol*. I have a subject picked up already so that's reliefing..but it's still undone. The subject of my pro seminar will be something so boring that I've decided not to bother you with it..*lol*.

However if you want to take a look at in finnish take the link here--> pro seminar 1998 suomeksi/in finnish

In case you want to gaze it in english take this link from here--> pro seminar 1998 in english/englanniksi

It's June 2nd 1998 and everything went as planned. I am a graduated cook now and it's time for me to move on. I'm going to save this page however to remind me of the times in that school.*s* I got my diploma and I'm going to put it up here just in case someone wants to know what a loser I am..*lol*

What did we practically do there?

Well..when we had kitchen we worked as pairs and get one dish to make. When it was warm kitchen it was a warm dish, the main dish. We usually practised very basic and known dishes like Wiener Schnitzels, Pike Perch Sotomayor, Gulash-, mushroom-, cheese-, onionsoups...you name it. And then sometimes we did something more unusual or seasonal like river crabs, duck, game dishes in general and some class had actually done shark (I'd like to try that out to..NOT!*l*) well..later in my last spring we did cook shark and it was good! So were frogs thighs..unbeliveable but true..*s*...And when we had cold kitchen we made only starters and desserts (=cold dishes*s*).Usually they were starter a la carte sandwishes, sallads, cocktail snacks and then my fav..desserts. Puddings, berry and fruit soups, home made ice cream, parfaits, jellys and a lots of other stuff. And the best part was this: After we were finished with the cooking, we sat down by a table and ate. Ate ate ate..*lol*. It really was obligatory to taste everything and we did..*lol*

The suit we wear..

We were the men in hats.(well..I still am*s*) Yes - we had THE hat..*l* they look funny but after a while someone without it in a kitchen looks even funnier *s*. And the white coat and black and white trousers. I'll put up a pic of me in that suit soon *s*. Then you can judge for yourself *s*.

Here is the promised pic of us (Emma, me and Tuuli) in our hats..cute weren't we...AND READY TO SLICE!*lol*

Class of '98..

After a hard workday leaving the warm kitchen..from the left.. Marjo, Sanna (the twin), Tuuli, Olli, Jaana (the other twin), Riitta (our teacher), Emma, Timo, Antti, Jarkko and Pauli

Antti cleaning up..we always put the men clean up the kitchen..*lol* they're so easy to persuate you know..*l*

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