Ratatouille and another year older

I was glad that my last class before my birthday went well. Last night (i dont know if you've noticed but since my classes run from 6pm to 11pm, i write about what i did the day after..) we needed to make rice pilaf (again, but this is the last time we'd get to do it before the final in the beginning of november), risotto, and a ratatouille (which we also had a demo for as well). Having two bad attempts at this rice pilaf, i wanted to get it perfect this time, so i made it first. My risotto wasn't as good as yesterdays. when i presented it to chef Woodstock, he asked me to put it back in the pot and make it creamier (ie, add more broth). When it did come out he explained it was slightly overdone (because i re-heated it) but that it was at the right consistency. However i totally aced my rice pilaf with one tiny exception. NOT SALTY ENOUGH! ok, i know he likes things salty, but geez i might ass well give him salt with a little rice mixed in. He said, "Its cooked perfectly and i'd probably give you something in the "A" range if this were on the final, but not a 100 because its not salty enough." GRRR! so to help me adjust my salt levels he made me try the rice pilaf over and over again, salting it over each time so realize how salty i am getting it. Personally it salted enough initially, but i'll need to know what "just right" is for someone who likes things salty. Anyhow, i am sick of rice pilaf. Ratatouille is a fairly simple dish which i am suprised is not more popular because its vegetarian/vegan friendly. Anyhow, it involved a lot of pan flipping for veggie sauteing because the chef told us to use the as little tools as possibles. And these are commercial kitchen pans so they are HEAVY. I really need to continue my arm strength training which ive put on hold since ive been really bust with school. But he even explained to us we need to condition our arms because we'll imoprove our pan flipping and knife skills. For the ratatouille, I needed to saute all the veggies separately and them braise them again all together. Once i finished, my product looked a bit to greasy so tried to blot some of the excess oil out before presenting it to the Chef. When i did present it, chef woodstock said, "not bad, your cuts are uniform (a crucial component to ensure even cooking), your veggied are cooked just right, pretty good, just make your chiffonade of basil (which was the final garnish we needed to add) a little more fine." Phew! i was sure i'd char all my veggies cause i am actually known to doing that at home. but i was so happy he though it was good becuase i saw him be very critical of others. Besides the cooking, i am beging to get to know the other students more. its a big mix. I am probably one of the few caucasians there. I'd say there's a good girl/boy ratio, i am really not certain about the ages though. I know a good chunkfull are fresh out of high school, but some have kids and theres a woman older than my dad. Its a rather strange concept, having some students older than the teacher. I am actually tolerating Chef Woodstock, i know he's a hard ass, but honestly he's making me want to do better so he might be good afterall. Chef French is cool, he talks to me in French a lot and calls my Isabelle or Brigette (because he knows i am an actress and so he calls me after French actresses i told him i like). I actually think he may just have a hard time pronouncing my real name (for those of you who do know my real name, i am sure it took you a little while getting used to saying it). But he's cool. He's actually written a cookbook coming out next year. The production class next door (i believe its the class you take before you graduate) brough us their left over shrimp, fried chicken, bagette, and scalloped potatoes. I had some rice already but i was stilll hungry so the class and I noshed on it. The bagette was exquiste! better than most bakeries!I brought some home to give to my dad since hes belgian and the real bagette aficionado. He loved it wans it was a great tool for soaking up the left-over shrimp juices left in the pan. I then realized why the othe classes were being so generous, when they gave us pans full of food, it meant WE needed to handle the clean up. ahh no good deed goes unpunished. oh well, i was willing to do a little extra cleaning in exhange for good food (although the fried chicken was mostly breading and grease and i loath scalloped potatos, but the rest was really delicious). well, its my birthday today which i really want to relax but i have in the back of my mind all this homework i need to get done...well i'll try to forget it for now.