poker face

Do you remember dissection day in high school?  I remember it quite vividly - our subject was a frog. I remember dreading it.  My class knew several days ahead of time that we would be cutting open a frog and exploring its insides.  The anticipation was agonizing.  I did not want to do it.  I was the squeamish girl.  I knew we would have partners and I secretly I hoped that my partner would be a very cute boy (I'm sure the cuteness of the boy had nothing to do with his dissecting abilities, but if I was going to play the damsel in distress role, well then, I preferred a really cute boy to save the day.)  Here's what I remember most...the whole dissection thing was not nearly as gross or horrible as my wild imagination had anticipated.

I bring up the dissection experience because that is all I could think of while studying for class Monday morning.  I was dreading class just like dissection day in high school.  You see, this week's class was on poultry fabrication and that meant we were going to be cutting up whole chickens.  I eat chicken, I buy and cook whole chickens...but I have never cut up a whole chicken.  Cutting through  bones has never been my thing.  It wasn't too long ago that I only bought boneless, skinless chicken breasts...the idea of handling food on a bone with skin was just too much for me to handle.  I've gotten over all of that and now prefer split chicken breasts on the bone.  But the thought of cutting through chicken bones was really bothering me on Monday.  I was afraid the whole experience would launch me into vegetarianism and that just isn't a convenient life choice while I'm in culinary school.  More importantly, I didn't want to be the squeamish girl.  That role was nice and fine in high school, but I'm a 40 year old woman in culinary school...I needed to handle this.  So, I decided while driving to school that I would not wince, squirm or make a face during lecture or during lab when we were actually cutting through the chickens.  It was time to see what kind of poker face I had.

Chef mentioned at the start of lecture that there is usually one or two students who aren't too excited about this class.  My thought bubble was "you won't know it's me!".  Then, he passed around a photo of a baby chick getting its beak cut off.  Seriously!  This is REALLY testing my game face.  I'm trying to be very stoic here and I have to look at a baby chick being tortured.  "Don't be the squeamish girl!" is what I kept repeating in my head.  And it worked...not a wince, squirm or sour face.  I had just bluffed my way through lecture.

Now we are were the kitchen and Chef was demonstrating how to cut a whole chicken into eight pieces.  I watched with an eagerness to learn.  (Warning: You may not want to play poker with me.  Even I was starting to buy my bluff.)  Then, we were back at our tables with our chickens.  We had to share a chicken amongst our team, so I could have gotten away without doing the bone cuts.  But at this point I wanted to prove it to myself that I wasn't the squeamish girl.  One of my teammates did the backbone cut.  Then, I jumped in (I wasn't going to be the last person to cut).  I cut the legs off of the body (not a bone cut).  Next, we needed to cut the breastbone in half.  I started in.  My teammate kindly suggested that I let our other male teammate do the breastbone cut because it may take some muscle.  Yep, I was so doing that cut...AND I DID!

I was really proud of myself.  The whole thing started off as a bluff on my part and my intention was just to fake my way through the night.  But at some point I just changed my mind.  I just decided I wasn't that squeamish girl who needed a boy to save the day.  I'm a culinary student who needs to know how to cut up a dang chicken.  And now I know how and it doesn't bother me a bit. (I may post a demonstration video in a few days.  Buying a whole chicken and cutting it into pieces is much easier than I thought and it's a great value too.)

The rest of the evening was much like the week before, but with so much less stress.  We had to prepare several dishes as a team for Chef to evaluate within a short period of time.  But it was so amazing how much more confident we felt as opposed to our night of unorganized chaos.  Of course, we still have a lot to learn - but our progress was something to be proud of.  My entire team was awesome.  Every week I learn so much from them...thank you, team!