Just a day to go until I start start my course. Having taken a week off work before starting, I thought to give myself a little bit of time to relax and get ready for the journey ahead. Unfortunately, all this has done is to INCREASE my nervousness. Having watched shows such as The Great British Menu and read books such as Momofoku by David Chang and Coco, published by Phaidon, it has really impressed upon me how good chefs can be and how far away from that standard I will ever be. There’s no doubt in my mind that at the time of arriving at the school, I will be the worst cook in the room. I imagine that many people undertaking the course will be in it with a view to pursuing a career in the culinary arts. I myself am driven a desire to learn about a subject I don’t know much about, and I have taken a very much “see what happens after” attitude for what will happen after.
So, in order to calm my nerves, I retreated to YouTube and 9Gag to remind myself of some of the things that really made me fall in love with the idea of cooking.

David Chang demonstrating some dishes from Momofoku Ssam

This, I want. However, I suspect I’ll be chased out the kitchen if I ever try and do this at school.

And how about this for macho food preparation? Not exactly haute cuisine, but this is the kinda stuff I like. So why am I studying classical french technique? Well, you need to learn the rules in order to break them, right?