This is me, in my school-issued uniform. No necktie or apron; believe me, they add little to the overall effect. Note the sexy Rockport clogs.
If you visit L'academie, this is the entrance you will probably come through. It's rather unassuming; L'academie's professional campus is situated in an ordinary-looking office-industrial park.
I start my morning in the demo kitchen most days. I sit in the front row on the far left. Chef Somchet normally does her demos in front of me, while Chef Peter stands to the right behind the line. The refrigerator in there has a timed turn-off switch since its compressor is loud, so it is often too warm for food storage. We use the microwave to melt butter sometimes, but that's about it.
Here's the main kitchen, with a view of the line along the left. There's also a fish fridge on the left, and on the other side of that fridge is the spice table.
I think the spice table is pretty cool. We get most of our spices from Vann's, a Baltimore company. Among the salts we stock: Italian sea salt, Hawaiian sea salt, fleur de sel, Kosher salt, La Baleine, and Celtic sea salt.
Another view of the main kitchen. There are normally six tables arranged in the middle of this room, but some of them were removed for a special class when I snapped these shots. If you look at the far reaches of the room you will see the reach-in glass doors of the school walk-in.
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Here's a peek inside the walk-in. The freezer is through the door at the back wall of the walk-in. Note the boxes of Plugra butter on the bottom shelf. (They're the white ones with the red bands.) Yes, that's Hellman's mayo on the shelf there.
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We use rather ordinary pots and pans at L'academie. Believe it or not, we occasionally run out of items, but for the most part L'academie's potwasher Juan keeps everything turning over quickly. Dish storage and dish processing share the same long, narrow space.
Here's the pastry kitchen, with a view of the ovens at the back. The left counter is all reach-in refrigerators, with the upright reach-in at the back left. We do almost all pastry and bread work in this kitchen. It's also favored for pasta-making, as it's usually a little less humid than the main kitchen. This room is home for L'academie's pastry arts program, and use of this kitchen and the demo kitchen are carefully scheduled so we won't have to use the same rooms at the same time.
BTW: Many thanks to Rachel and Jason Perlow for all their image assistance.
