My alarm has gone off every day this week at 3:55 am. Rise and shine for fish class! With my chef whites on, hair in a toque, apron and sharp knives, I have cut fish every morning this week with class from 4:50 to 11 am. We do everything from cleaning and packing fish on ice, to scaling, cutting, filleting, and butterflying. In our lecture we have discussions about sustainability, farmed vs. wild fish, and about as many of the 542 species of fish as we can. I have a fabulous chef instructor who is incredibly smart. It makes waking up in the dark a little bit easier (but I don't think cleaning out a bin of 100 whole raw fish will ever get easier-did that this week too).
After our practical work from 5-8:30 am we get to sample 8 different types of fish (that is each day!) We taste them baked with little or no salt so we can understand the flavor of the meat and learn how to work with it in a kitchen. Nothing like a bland piece of wolf fish, yellow snapper, or pacific king salmon to wake you up in the morning! As sarcastic as that was meant to be I have come to really enjoy the class. I butterflied 5 rainbow trout this morning and am getting better with my knives each day.
Have you ever wondered what you smell like after being in a fish kitchen for 6 hours? Just come take a whiff of my chef coat and you'll get the idea. I have never appreciated showers so much in my life as this week. It was a smelly one but quite a good one!
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