Instead of preparing for an evening meal, as would be traditional in a real restaurant kitchen, we peons in Level 2 were in charge of preparing hors d’oeuvres for the dinner service. Because the school ran two shifts of students a day—the day shift that ran from around eight-thirty in the morning to three in the afternoon, and then an evening shift of students from five to ten at night—each shift prepared only one meal. Because we had more class time each day than the night students, we were able to learn a bit more of the esoteric tricks and tips from our instructors. One of these things was the hors d’oeuvres course from Chef Pierre. After serving lunch to the chefs’ table and making certain our workstations were spick-and-span, we were allowed to have lunch. Once our lunch break was over, we reconvened for our afternoon lecture, where the critiques of the dishes we had prepared for the chefs were read aloud and further commented on (read: ridiculed) by our fellow students.
