Butchery Class Final(ly Over)

Today is my final butchery class. I'm a bit teary-eyed. No more soaking my chef jacket each night to get rid of the, um, stains. No more panic attacks while trimming a $30/pound beef tenderloin. No more fish guts.

I really did learn a lot and have more skills in the kitchen than ever before. But boy, oh boy, the things I've seen.

My most memorable moments:

Chef turned to me one day and said, "There's some mackerel in the sink over there. It needs to be gutted and filleted." I walked slowly to the sink, approaching it unexcitedly, and sure enough, there were mackerel in there. Four whole mackerel that were probably enjoying a leisurely swim the day before.

I became known as the Saw Lady in class. After a demo of butchering a leg of lamb, Chef said, "OK, who's next? You?" He handed me the hacksaw (yes, I said hacksaw) and told me to go for it. I'm pretty sure that was the first time I'd ever held a saw in my hand. I did so well, I got applause. The next day, Chef came over to my station and told me that he had nightmares of me and my saw.

After taking attendance one afternoon, Chef told me and another girl to go to the cooler and get the cart with the pig on it. I remained where I was and chuckled. Chef said, "No, I'm serious." We walked down to the cooler and sure enough, there was a five-tier cart with four sides of pig. I'm talking someone took two pigs and cut them straight down the middle. Averting our eyes, my fellow student and I pushed the cart down the hall. Only when we'd placed the cart in the classroom and returned to our stations did I realize that the pigs' heads were STILL ON THE CART!

And then, Chef said, "Saw Lady, you're up."