MY PROFESSION IS A COOK
Ex.1. Read and translate the text.
I study at the Cooking Department of the Moscow College of Technologies and Design, so I will be a cooking and catering professional: a cook or a technologist. Every school year we do practice work for 2-3 months. This year our group has done their practice at the Golden Palace restaurant. This is a large restaurant, which is open 24 hours a day since it is the restaurant by the casino with the same name.
There are three departments within the main shop there - a cold shop, a hot shop and a pastry-cook's shop. Salads, snacks, sandwiches, cuts of cold meat and fish and desserts are made in the cold shop. Soups, hot meat and fish dishes and sauces are prepared in the hot shop. In the pastry-cook's shop they make tarts, patties, fancy cakes, etc.
The kitchen staff begins their work at 7 o'clock. We had to come to the restaurant at 10 o'clock. Each of us was told to go to one of the shops. There we got a programme for the working day. Usually we prepared sandwiches, fruit salads and canapés for breakfast. We cut bread, ham, sausage and vegetables to put on canapés. We also decorated them with herbs and little figures made of carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. Breakfast was served from 8 till 12.At 11 o'clock we began to help the cooks by preparing dishes for lunch. Student cooks were usually trusted to cut vegetables and make sauces for desserts: strudels, ice-cream, tarts and puddings.
All day we had to carry out cooks' instructions. The kitchen staff is very experienced there. The chef is a very skilled cook too. He has worked many years as a cook in this and other restaurants. The main part of his job is to plan the menu for the day and manage the staff in the kitchen.
At the end of the practice time we had to take an examination. We had to prepare three courses: a soup, a main course and a dessert. I made Moscow borshchas soup, beef with sour cream and mushrooms as a main course and chocolate soufflé as a dessert. Most of all I like to cook desserts. I made these in the shape of stars. Then put three stars of different sizes and colours on the plate and added some kiwi sauce near them on the plate. It was very nice and tasty. This practice certainly gave us much information, and more importantly, valuable experience in preparing new dishes. I realized happily that I had made the right choice of the profession.
Ex.2. VOCABULARY:
to do practice - проходить практику
cold shop - холодный цех
hot shop - горячий цех
pastry-cook's shop - кондитерский цех
to trust - доверять, поручать
to carry out one's instructions - выполнять чьи-либо инструкции
experienced - опытный
skilled - умелый,опытный
to manage - руководить
to realize - понимать
to make the right choice - сделать правильный выбор
Ex.3. Подберите английские эквиваленты к следующим словосочетаниям и выражениям.
Работники кухни, украшать зеленью, поручить приготовить соус для десерта, очень опытный повар, планировать меню, в форме звездочек, ценный опыт.
Ex.4. Ответьте на вопросы.
l. What is your future profession?
2. Have you done practice this year?
3. Where have you done your practice?
4. In what shop did you work?
5. What dishes did you prepare?
6. When did you begin your work?
7. How many hours a day did you have to work?
8. When did the kitchen staff begin their work?
9. What kind of work did you do?
10. Was the chef a skilled cook?
Ex.5. Вставьте some, any, no.
1. I see... bread. Why haven't you bought..., Nick? - I had... time to do it. 2. Have... soup, Helen. - No, thank you. I had... soup at dinner. I don't want... more. 3. Were there... mistakes in your paper? - Yes, there were.... 4. Will there be... concert after the meeting? - No, there won't be... concert. 5. Why didn't they give us... postcards to send?
My Working Day. The Day of the Student Who Wants to Be a Cook
Ex.6. Read and translate the text in the written form.
My every day activities are quite routine. They do not differ much from working days of students of any college. My working day begins at 7 o'clock in the morning when I get up. Usually I get up so quickly, move so energetically that I don't need to do exercises. I switch on music and wash myself, clean my teeth, dress myself, comb my hair and listen to my favourite radio station "Hit FM". They transmit news, shows, pop music and songs. Then I have breakfast. For breakfast I usually have toasted bread or a sandwich, corn flakes, tea or coffee and some jam.
At 7.50 I leave for college. It is far from my house so I go by taxi. It takes 8 or 10 minutes to get there. I go to college 5 days a week. At the college we have 3 or 4 double lessons. We study a lot of different professional and educational subjects, for example Culinary, Organization of service, Modeling of professional situations, Equipment, Man and Society, Economy, Marketing, Management, English, Learning goods and others.
On Friday we have Practical lessons where we study professional skills, how to work, how to organize service, how to cook dishes, how to lay the table. We work in the kitchen of college's canteen. At our Practical lessons we prepare dinner for all the college. We try to work well because it is very important to prepare a tasty dinner. We deal with different products: meat, vegetables, fruit, dried fruit, fish, sugar, butter, oil, salt and others. I like our Practical lessons because we learn a lot of new things about our profession.
At 11.30 we have dinner at our canteen. Usually we have soup or borshch, meat or fish burgers and porridge or potatoes, fried fish and potatoes, some salad, compote from apples or dried fruit. My lessons end at 2 p.m. or at 3.30 p.m. When a come home I have a short rest, then I look through my lessons of the next day, help my mother about the house, watch TV a little.
After supper I usually watch TV, read a book or a magazine, speak to my friend on the telephone or go for a walk with my close friends. At 10 p.m. I prepare my clothes, pens, books, copy-books for tomorrow lessons. Then I go to bed with my book. At 11 p.m. I sleep and have dreams usually good and interesting, but sometimes not. I think, it depends on my mood and general condition.