No rest for the weary on this presidential holiday; Kitchen Academy's PCA-2a class jumps right into gear.

It'll take a little getting used to the new kitchen. The layout is slightly different and the equipment storage is switched around a bit, not to mention the different equipment that is available. For example, there are two meat slicers that take up one station. Interestingly, we've lost two students from our class, dropping to thirty (thus, not causing too much of a problem with the loss of one station to meat cutters).

I grab a station near the rear dishwashing station. I consider this critical to making it easy to keep up with the dishes during production (and we will be generating a lot of dishes). Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, the oven at the station I chose isn't operable: the pilot light continues to go out. This is a bit annoying.

My station partner is Arturo, who has usually been across the station from me. We also work together frequently during Saturdays, so we should have no problem working together this week. Only a week, because our chef instructor promises that we will be shifted around on a weekly basis. Fair enough.

Speaking of chef instructors, we have two, though Chef Guevara said we may have an additional instructor for training from time to time. Our lead instructor is Chef Kimberly Knight (scroll down), who comes to California from Atlanta, GA. In addition to her cooking experience, she has an extensive background in culinary education and says that Kitchen Academy is her ideal and favorite job. She looks forward to coming in everyday (at 5am).

For roll call, in order to get to know the students, she has each of us introduce ourselves and provide a one-word description. Eddie, one of the students, asked her at the end of the roll call to provide a one-word description of herself. She says "sensitive."

Our other instructor is Chef Melino, who had assisted Chef Perez and Guevara in the last couple of weeks of Course I.

Chef Knight then goes into her expectations for the class. First off, it should be a learning experience for everyone, as we will, once again, be the largest class to date. Next, she is particularly concerned with safety and sanitation. One particular pet peeve is open beverage containers in class. She sees one and you get a zero for sanitation for the day. Lidded and capped containers are fine. It is also fine to leave the kitchen to get a drink as long as you notify the chef (like we'll have time).

Next on Chef Knight's list of expectations is that everyone be in a clean, full, proper uniform (i.e., no colored t-shirts underneath the white chef's coat). White t-shirts are pretty cheap. I'm not sure why so many students wear colored or shirts with obvious lettering and designs that can almost be read through their coats.

Professional grooming is also brought to our attention. Chef Knight is particularly concerned with fingernails (closely trimmed, no polish, including clear). She tells us that before she went to culinary school (Art Institute of Atlanta School of Culinary Arts) she used to have her nails done every two weeks. She realized what a commitment a culinary career was when she gave up her nails to persue her passion for cooking.

After those preliminaries, Chef Knight spoke about what this course was about: meat, of course, as well as the various dry and wet means of cooking it. Just as important, though, the course is about about plate presentation. In general, and unlike course I, we will be presenting finished plates with two or three components. Furthermore, we will be presenting two of each plate, which should be identical.

Chef Knight recommended that we consider the night before how we intend to plate our production. She even suggested that some might find it useful to draw the product using crayons, though some lucky few might find they do well to plate as they produce.

So, those were some of the basics of course II.

What did we produce today? We fabricated (cut into pieces) two chickens, much of which was reserved for future use. However, we did keep one carcass for a mustard sauce and the four breasts, which were served with polenta and sauteed brussel sprouts. Never really liked brussel sprouts and, if anything, today only confirmed my dislike. It wasn't simply that they don't taste all that good, but that they are a pain to prep and cook. After slicing, coring, blanching, shocking, draining and sauteing, there wasn't much left of some of the sprouts. Seemed like a lot of effort with very little to show for it to me. Ah well.

Sounds fairly easy, but I did end up juggling burners and having to track several different things at once. I can tell I'm going to be learning a lot about organization, if nothing else.