Day Two: Construction

Today i hung around with my construction buddies a bit. Fixed some walls and stuff:)

Then the rest of the kitchen team came, late ofcourse, and we started on our main chores of the day like moving boxes, carrying chairs and tables downstairs, then moving some more boxes from the van; the usual culinary stuff:)

Then the owner brought her whole cooking library to the restaurant, and her library is huge. I went through it all. It has amazing books i will be borrowing later.

See, people don't know i'm a college graduate snob, except some. I'm trying to avoid creating a wrong image and finding myself in an evil lets-see-when-she-cracks situation like in the movies. Because the normal reaction of uni graduates like me is, as i've been told, disappointment in doing small chores rather than working their magic in the kitchen. And apparently, they leave after 4 or 5 days of work. Me, no. I'm okay with anything. In the kitchen, i am the one with lower education. SO, since university graduates are such a tease for them (i've actually experienced a conversation about it today. The conclusion was: ZUPPE:) ), i'm trying to blend in as smoothly as possible. Good work up to now. Like today, the top chef and the pastry chef learned about my education through Onur, while we were checking out the books(almost all in English). And we ended up making a deal: I'll translate the recipes for them and they will teach me how everything works, AWESOME:)

First Day of Work-ish

Today was the first day of my new job...kind of...

So...

I went by the D corner in IstinyePark by midday. Early as always. See i always thought that being 5 to 10 minutes earlier would be impressive in terms of workplace discipline:) But the person to impress wasn't there until after an hour from our meeting time.Met almost a dozen of the staff along that time, mostly sincere fun people. The Corner is actually a much more cozy and relaxed place. There are, as far as i know, two chefs, a couple of waiter/resses and a catering director. It has an open kitchen, again, but it's much easier to learn stuff since it's a real small space afterall. Ofcourse, i could be feeling this way as the branch i'll be working is still kinda under construction. It'll be as much cozy when everything gets settled.

Anyways,

it was a weird day. The two kitchen chefs probably had their minds blown away by the busy period of the new place. They seemed pretty high:D 5 minute breaks inbetween sentences... So, we talked about a couple of stuff. Went through the menu, if you'd call it that. Then, they sent me to Taksim for fitting, which took like 5 minutes. And then told me to go to D Nisantasi. "Just go there..."

I did go. And the other new guy came, too. And they told us to "just be there", no idea whether they would be coming or not. So, we sat by the table in the cold cold not-yet-ready restaurant; watched the constructors do their work and try to understand what they were saying. Couldn't do that though it was Turkish:) The arcitect of the place asked if we were 'sheeps' or something, waiting out there for the unknown:)

It was hilarious really.

So...

finally the chefs called us and told us to go back home, to meet again in the construction place tomorrow?!

Yes, i am still incredibly excited about the work, no cold-feet or anything. I only thought the day was a bit....different....?!

D

Collected my documents, made some calls and i'm starting my new job tomorrow. I still have no idea which part i will be doing, but i'm incredibly excited about it, butterflies in my stomach and stuff... For now, i'd like to call myself the Egg Person:)

My pastry studies were delayed this week due to the bad weather, literally. I'll be writing about my upcoming trials asap.

Keep following;)

New Cupcakes from the New Book

After a small break, i got back into the kitchen today. Tried out two new cupcake recipes. I am tired, my back hurts and i may be falling asleep right about now:) Buttt, it was worth the effort.

It doesn't exactly look like the ones in the book, i'm working on that, too.

One chocolate peppermint and raspberry vanilla cupcake down, just about two hundred more recipes to go:)

But the main good news of the day is that I GOT A JOB:) A while ago, i've sent an email to the owner of a bistro-like place, of which i adore both the style and the food. And, luckily, i got a reply right ahead. After a cozy interview on monday, we sealed the deal and i've spent the whole day, today, collecting all the necessary reports and stuff. I'm gonna be working at an about-to-be-open restaurant in Nisantasi. I have no idea what i would be called since i will be working different parts each month or so; but i will be within the whole process inside and outside the kitchen, even outside the restaurant, hopefully. EXCITEDDDD:D I know that it's gonna be a tiring, yet incredible experience. Guess my luck has turned around;)

Keep following...

PS: For more pictures, visit my facebook page

A Misfortunate Event

So...

you all know how hard i have been trying to get a scholarship for MSA and how especially harder it was for me since i had a Koc university stamp saying 'She's richhh'. I worked my way through it, giving some very intimate details to the executive chef to lay out my situation.

AND

guess what happened?

I called him yesterday, as he told me to do, to ask about whether the scholarship is going to happen or not. After a couple of umm,hmmm, immmms he told me that he quit his job at MSA a week ago. WHAT THE...????? Just as my luck has always messed around with me, the joke's on me once more.

He quit last week and now nobody in MSA knows my situation, i'm just a -supposedly-rich kid applying for a scholarship. I called the school, they told me to send an email for application, and they would consider me among other applicants, even though it's a little late.

After these shochking news, i went through the stages of ANGER, SELF-BLAME and COOL DOWN very quickly, and then i started to look at the option of getting a student loan.

So....

New Plan: I'm starting to work at a pastry shop right away. The second semester of MSA starts in about 9 months. By then, i would have worked in 2 or 3 pastry shops if things go as planned. By that time, if i still see getting the MSA certificate (actually the City & Guilds certificate) is a 'must', i will get the damn student loan, period.

thank you Amazon.com

My christmas gifts have arrived. and quite early since they were due 25th of january. Now i've got around 500 cupcake recipes, so maybe i should start sending them out to you guys? I'll think about this option.

One of the books i've got is Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft, which is actually a study book by the Culinary Institute of America (one of the best chefschools). As it sounds, it's much more of a technical book. Another one, again by CIA, is Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers and Restaurant Owners. This is again a technical book on restaurant and cafe management, will teach me how to keep all of you coming to my future pastry shop. And the other two are dedicated only to cupcakes, my kitchen will be working hard for the next couple of months.