Read Online White Jacket Required by Jenna Weber - Free Book Online Page A

were overzealous with your knife. Be gentle. I could not serve these.” My cheeks began to burn, and I could only nod. He then picked at my onion dice, separating the good ones from the longer pieces. “These need to be uniform. All the same size, perfect quarter-inch dice. Every one of them. You need to throw away the ones that do not fit that mold.” He marked some numbers in his grade book and looked up at me. “You better get going, Miss Weber.”
    I hustled off to start on my pasta. This had been the first real test of my culinary skills, and I felt like I had already failed. I had one hour left, and Chef had told us that on this day, about eighty-five percent of students get a zero for lack of finishing. Thirty minutes later, after my torchon (hand towel) almost caught fire on my gas burner, my onions hit the oil without any hiss of a sizzle, which meant the oil had not warmed up enough. I finished with only five minutes to spare, but at least I finished. I anxiously seasoned my pasta with salt and pepper and piled it into a large stainless-steel bowl before taking it up to Chef to taste and grade.
    This time: “Not enough salt.” He chewed on a diced vegetable. “Vegetables are cooked nicely, and so is the pasta, but there is not nearly enough salt in this . . . and a little too much oil.” He gave me a four out of five as my final grade for the day and left me to pile my greasy, undersalted pasta into a Styrofoam cup to have for dinner that night at home. A lot of my classmates were still struggling with their sauté pans and water that was refusing to boil. I exhaled. One day down, fourteen more to go.
    I ditched the pasta and came home that afternoon completely exhausted, bearing a couple of potatoes and leeks that Chef had given me to “practice” with. Helen was just waking up from a nap and laughed when she saw my arms full of dirty potatoes.
    â€œMore pancakes?” she asked.
    I just gave her a glare. “Ugh, I wish. Chef is making me practice my knife skills with these . . . part of my ‘homework.’ I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped on the first graded plate, so I guess this is the consequence.”
    â€œWell, at least we know we’ll never go hungry!” Helen laughed. “Can we make mashed potatoes with the leftovers? I’m craving something creamy and comforting.”
    I nodded and immediately got to work, peeling the potatoes and slicing them directly down the middle to start and then into perfect medium-size dice according to Chef’s instruction. “Honestly, it’s not totally what I thought so far . . . but it’s still fun,” I said as I chopped. “I just want to get past all this initial stuff and move on to the fun, creative cooking.”
    â€œYeah, but don’t you have to be sure you know the basics before you can move on? It’ll all pay off in the end,” Helen replied. Cooking at home had already begun to take on a whole new meaning without Chef constantly in my ear and mind and without the classical music droning. Even my dreams at night were consumed with chopping and slicing, and at times I swore I could hear Chef shouting in the background. However, by the end of that first week my vegetable-dicing skills were almost professional and I was proud that my practice at home had really paid off.

    Pasta with Sautéed Vegetables and Pesto
    Serves 4
    I love this tasty vegetarian pasta dish but have been known to add chicken sausage to kick it up a notch. During the summer, I make big batches of pesto and freeze it so that I can enjoy this dish whenever the mood strikes.
    For the pesto
    3 cups packed basil leaves
    3 garlic cloves
    Â½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
    Juice of ½ lemon
    Â¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
    Â½ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
    Â¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
    For the pasta
    8 ounces dried bow-tie pasta
    1 tablespoon canola