Session Two: Sanitation, Introductions, and more Chop-chop-chopping

At orientation, Chef Alain Saillac said, "You're going to love every minute of it," and he wasn't kidding. It's just too much fun. Even a class about sanitation, which sounds like something yawn-worthy was actually interesting.

Chef Tim Shaw, former personal chef to celebrities, took over for a couple of hours. My favorite quote from him for the night was, "I heard Star Jones is now dating her chef. That's like an alcoholic dating a bartender. It's just wrong."

I learned some neat things, like:

• Staph is in your ear gunk, eye gunk, and in that nasty white border around your sores, and if someone touches any of these and then handles your food, you could potentially get a Staph infection.
  
• It's safe to eat pork a little pink in the middle
  
• Chicken is the only bird really prone to Salmonella(because of the way we breed them, swimming in their poo) and in a couple of weeks, the class is going to prepare duck with a rare breast.
  
• Star Jones is craaazy.
  

After our little session with Chef Tim, we practiced more slicing and dicing, or Julienne and Brunoise, and capped off the class with introductions.

The youngest guy in our class- and I still can't believe it because he looks older than me- is seventeen. He dropped out of High School to go to the FCI. Shoot, I wish I had done that.

The oldest person in class is a 47-year-old man who is changing careers after being laid off in the auto industry.

Everyone's story was inspirational, and it's great to be involved with all these people that care as much about food as I do.