Foundations 1

My first week of culinary school and a new job; Yes, for those of you that haven’t already heard, I have finally after 17 months of unemployment now join the very happy and grateful ranks of the working! I am the bartender for Ristorante Allegro on Gough Street in Hayes Valley, a very hip & trendy neighborhood in San Francisco near the Civic Center, City Hall, the Opera House & Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. Hayes Valley is a fabulous neighborhood with delightful boutiques tucked in-between cafes, bistros’s and fine dine establishment’s all side by side block after block all the way to the Tenderloin. I am up at the crack of dawn, which for some of you is no big deal – but for me, a creature of the theatre for the past 25 years, (unless there’s an earth quake) I am happily asleep until way past 10 in the AM! My day now starts at 6:30 am, I am out the door and on my way through the East Bay maze by 7:30 in hopes to reach the toll before crossing the Bay Bridge by 7:45 in order to make it to 15^th and Vermont Street in Portero Hill by 8:20 just to get all day free parking! My first class Foundations 1 starts at 9:am. I am dressed in black & white checked pants, Chef Jacket, neckerchief, skull cap and steel toed black shoes along with 30 other students as we line up outside the classroom awaiting our check in with Chef Patricio. Once we are all in our places Chef Patricio asks if we all had a good night sleep and are ready for our day -  in unison a lively “YES CHEF” fills the room. It’s much like the army, only with better food. Foundations 1 is all about Knife skills, cuts, weights & measures, recipe conversions and culinary terms. I’m like a fish to water in this environment and for the first time in a very long time, I feel truly happy and a live with tremendous passion!