My Profession Is a Cook

My Profession Is a Cook

I study at the Cooking Department of the Moscow College of Technologies

and Design, so I will be a cooking and catering professional: a

cook or a technologist.

Every school year we do practice work for 2—3 months. This year

our group have done their practice at the Golden Palace restaurant.

This is a large restaurant, which is open 24 hours a day since it is the

restaurant by the casino with the same name.

There are three departments within the main shop there — a cold

shop, a hot shop and a pastry-cook’s shop. Salads, snacks, sandwiches,

cuts of cold meat and fish and desserts are made in the cold shop.

Soups, hot meat and fish dishes and sauces are prepared in the hot

shop. In the pastry-cook’s shop they make tarts, patties, fancy cakes,

etc.

The kitchen staff begin their work at 7 o ’clock. We, student cooks

had to come to the restaurant at 10 o’clock. Each of us was told to go to

one of the shops. There we got a programme for the working day. Usually

we prepared sandwiches, fruit salads and canapes for breakfast. We cut

bread, ham, sausage and vegetables to put on canapes. We also decorated

them with herbs and little figures made of carrots, cucumbers, tom atoes,

etc. Breakfast was served from 8 till 12. At II o ’clock we began to

help the cooks by preparing dishes for lunch. Student cooks were usually

trusted to cut vegetables and make sauces for desserts: strudels, ice

cream, tarts and puddings.

All day we had to carry out cooks’ instructions. The kitchen staff are

very experienced there. The chef is a very skilled cook too. He has

worked many years as a cook in this and other restaurants. The main

part of his job is to plan the menu for the day and manage the staff in

the kitchen.

At the end of the practice time we had to take an examination. We

had to prepare three courses: soup, a main course and dessert. I made

Moscow borshch as soup, beef with sour cream and mushrooms as a

main course and chocolate souffle as dessert. Most of all I like to cook

desserts. I made these in the shape of stars. Then I put three stars of

different sizes and colours on the plate and added some kiwi sauce near

them on the plate. It was very nice and tasty.

This practice certainly gave us much information, and more importantly,

valuable experience in preparing new dishes. I realized happily

that I had made the right choice of profession