This afternoon, I exited the French Culinary Institute building using the student door located on Broome Street, and proceeded to make a right into the throngs of gridlock choking the sidewalks on Broadway. I’m guessing that any day now I will begin to instinctually hang a left, seeking the relative serenity of Layfayette, but for these first days I’ve relished breaking my usually-brisk stride, because it makes me feel more rooted in my new surroundings and reminds me that this is real.





I’m laughing at myself, because I’ve taken to closing out each school day with a stroll up Broadway, sweating like mad with matted, chef beanie hair, and carrying a still-warm baguette under one arm, wrapped in a 50 lb. King Arthur Flour sack. I’m too preoccupied to listen to my iPod or check my messages – instead I’m going over dough pre-shaping techniques in my head, making sure that I’ve retained knowledge from a blur of a day spent in the bread kitchen.

There is one bread that I have committed completely to memory, and it’s an important one to know. Each day, no matter what other types of bread our class is learning to bake, it is our job to make baguettes for L’ecole, the school’s restaurant. And so, each day, we work in teams to complete these 14 steps, and each day we become a little better at making our baguettes than we were the day before.





This kind of repetition might seem boring to some, but to me there’s nothing more exciting than going over to the rack at the end of the day to retrieve my tagged baguette for a critique with our chef instructor.





I’m getting much better at shaping the baguettes (my first one was quite misshapen) but I’ve got some work to do on scoring them properly. It’s harder than it looks, but of course, I am determined.





You may notice that there is no recipe in this post. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to structure the blog while I’m in school, especially the first 8 weeks, which is continuous bread baking, which can get old. I’m considering a couple of different options, such as alternating post types (after all woman cannot live on bread alone – although Brian has tried since I’ve started bringing so much of it home) or perhaps blogging home adaptations of the recipes we make in class. Any suggestions, blogosphere? I know you’re out there! That’s what the comments box is for (hint, hint). Cheers!