Sept. 25 Baking: I did the Buddy System at NAIT’s Baking program
today. It’s basically me observing and
asking questions about the program as I sit in their class. I woke up at
5:30am. I was
supposed to be there at 7:15am. I had a
dream last night that I was somewhere at 10:15am, and I should call NAIT to see if I can still come.
I did plan my trip
and I caught the #8 bus earlier. I got
there 30min early instead of 15 min. early.
I then bought a large cup of coffee there for $2.20.
I mainly shadowed
one student who is an older woman in her 40s.
Baking is a rush. There is a lot
of preparation and organization involved.
Lots of running around and fast paced, loud with beepers going off. On Mon. are demos where the teachers show you
how to cook 13 things. Tues., Wed., and
Thurs. are where the students cook 3 recipes a day.
Programs: It’s a 1 yr program and then they do an apprentice exam. There is the Culinary program and that’s 2
yrs. The books are about $500, and there
are some recipe books. There’s one book
all about bread. There is a Baker’s Kit
which is tools. Books, tools, 2 uniforms
and it’s $1200.
I did talk to a
student who did the 2 yr Culinary program and what the differences are. Baking is more precise with the measurements. The temperature of the water is very
important in baking. In Culinary, if
there is too much of something, it’s fine.
Math:
There is a lot of math involved with calculators, scales, and the accuracy in
measuring the ingredients and water.
It’s all grams and mL. They teach
you on how to create your own formula.
For example, there is a big recipe, and then you have to make it a
smaller serving.
Schedule: It’s mainly they cook from 7:15am to 11:15am. The last
hour is cleaning up. They go for lunch
and then be back in class at 1:15pm. Thurs. are
cooking and Fri. is lab theory. Bakeries
do start early in the morning. It
reminds me of the movie The Pacifier I saw back in 2006. The neighbors in the movie said that they
work at a bakery and have to wake up early.
On Thurs. class ends at 12pm. On Fri.
class ends at 11am.
Classes: The classes are demos. There
are written tests about flour, wheat, sugar, and math. They teach about converting Celsius to
Fahrenheit, the right water temperature.
The teachers grade by tasting the food the students cook. They critique it, cut it, feel the texture,
and see if it’s sellable to the Common Market (NAIT’s cafeteria.)
Methods: Students bake it, and they can buy it first at a discount. A loaf of bread is $1.35.
Cooking tips: I asked what the difference between butter and
shortening is. A student told me that
butter is a milk product and shortening is animal fat.
But then I went on
the internet and found this:
“Shortening is 100 percent fat, but butter and margarine are
composed of about 85 percent fat and 15 percent water.”
You can eat the
skin of a lemon. You have to skin it
into little pieces.
Hands- on: It was interesting to watch, but I need to get my hands on it. I made muffins. I made lots of muffins back when I worked at
a café in summer 2007. I made lemon
poppy seed and bran back at the café and I used a spoon. However, in Baking, they use their hands to
scoop up the batter and put it in the paper.
The food: I did eat a little bit of the coconut wafers. I also ate a maple donut. I had a little bit of a long john. It’s good.
Conclusion: I learned a lot from spending the morning there. In baking, there is a lot of time management
to get things done on time. It’s very
results-oriented because the food is cooked.
TV show: It reminded me of a Malcolm in the Middle episode where the son
Reese takes a cooking class and enjoyed it.
Sept. 27: It took a
week and a half of planning. The program
was going to start using digital scales instead of the old manual scales they
had. The students had to buy their own
digital scales if they wanted one.
I then told my dad
about it, and he said it would be too hard for me because it’s physically
hard. That’s what I was thinking, that
it was so labor intensive. My job can be
labor intensive, but I do get paid by the hour with tips. I do like my job. As for baking, I don’t think this program is
really for me.
Staycation: This word means going on a vacation at home. I scheduled to have 3 days off Mon.-
Wed. The first two days I stayed at home
and looked for a job, applied to places, read the business section of the
newspapers. The usual productive things
I do on my days off. I wanted a few days
in a row as a sort of staycation. I
needed a break from work.
When I came back to
work on Thurs. to ask how the last 3 days were, they said it was quiet. Just like the entire month was. Well, if I was to go on vacation, I might as
well go during the time when it’s not busy.
I used one of the days to go to the Baking program.
Sept. 30 Inflation: I was going through some news articles I clipped
out like the May 14, 2013 article from 24.
It was finance. One with the Till
Debt do Us Part host Gail Vax-Oxlade living within your means.
The one below it
was “Stock- Market fluctuations a necessary risk” by Doug Riding BA, CFP, FMA-
IPC Investment Corporation. Website:
ridingteam.ca
The article:
“According to the ‘Rule of 72’ a 3% inflation rate means that your costs of
living will double every 24 years (72 divided by 3 is 24.) This rule implies that the time in years that
it takes your money to double is the product of 72 divided by your rate of
return.
With 35 inflation,
$50,000 today has the same purchasing power of $25,000 twenty-four years ago
and, if you are retiring in 24 years with the same inflation rate, you will
need $100,000 per year to generate what $50,000 would buy today.”
Match.com: I was reading Metro on Sept. 18, 2013. The
article: “These will Knock your Socks off” by Paul Sullivan. It’s about trivia and he said that Gary
Kremen who is the founder of Match.com, lost his girlfriend to a man she met on
match.com.
If you go to #5, it
will confirm it.
This fits in my
business email because I found this:
“While
this may have helped the company grow the number of users, it also backfired
for Kremen. His girlfriend met another man on Match.com and left him for him!
Kremen later said that while it was painful, at least it showed him that the
site worked! What an optimist!”
Mark Wahlberg: I’m going to put this my business email, because it
is about education. Wahlberg dropped out
of high school and became an actor. Now at
42, he finally got his high school diploma.
He says: “I was fortunate to find out I could attend high school
online. For almost a year, I’ve been
taking classes and studying any chance I could get- on the set, traveling for
work and at home. It has been both
humbling and challenging, but I’m happy to report that I am officially a high
school graduate.”
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