40 hours this week. I feel so accomplished.

I start baking and pastry tomorrow. I'm actually really excited--unlike some of my fellow culinarians I really love to bake. I think it's important for every cook to just take some time to bake something every once in awhile--it keeps one's patience from dying and is a good medicine for kitchen stress. To take a very objective approach to food preparation, measuring things in 1/4 teaspoons, whipping egg whites to a perfect peak, folding ingredients together but not overmixing, just sticking something in an oven and waiting for awhile is so the antithesis of a line cook's existence that it brings a little balance into our lives to do so.