CBL starts!!!!!

Ah, just finished 1 week of CBL ( Craft Based learning) Practicals in school. It was fun. CBL is like practical lessons in the hospitaity industry aspects. I started in the service first with my first week (14th April - 18th April) in cafe. It was simpler than the fine dining service since I was serving in Cafe Vennois in school but it was busier and more hectic. Still, I feel that it was really a good experience and I'm really happy with my service group members who were there to support and motivate each other.

OH yea, it was really a long day for last week. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner to serve the school but the key event was during lunch where we had to do setting up of table (mise en place) and announce the soup of day along with serving water. Dinner wasn't so bad since it was buffet style and people helped themselves to everything. Haha, and there were many functions of a waiter in the cafe. Besides waitering, I did stewarding (emptying food waste and arranging used plates and cups in trolleys to be brought to the back of the kitchen for cleaning) and runner (in charge of transporting clean plates to the front and bringing dirty ones to the back). Yea, it was kinda tiring but I liked it.

So, I just did my first day of fine dining service in Bellevue restaurant in school. It was nice. The pace was slower and not so tiring but the service section was more demanding. We served breakfast and lunch. Waitering for breakfast was okay, I only had to pour coffee for guests who wanted it. Lunch was a-la-carte, meaning we have to take orders from guests who are presented with menus for a 3 course meal: starter, main course and dessert. We had to serve bread and butter at the start, take orders, set up cutlery for starter, main and desserts, clear plates, monitor water glasses to see if it's empty and......Smile! I still need to practice on that.

Phew, I'm glad it's over for the day. My very first day and I was given a table of six! In the end, it turned into 7 people (All teachers)! It was a bit nerve recking at the start and I almost messed up since I was scribbling badly on my paper taking the orders but in the end, it turned out well. When I reflected back on the day, it wasn't THAT bad. I didn't make any major screw ups and I only had to serve for breakfast and lunch. So.... I was free at 2 for the whole day..but..still have to wake up at 6am everyday.

Hmm, it's 4.15pm in the afternoon now. I can't wait for kitchen practical to start though. It's nice to serve but I like to make food for people to eat as well.

Well, that's all for today. Haha, and I apologize for the late post. Been busying, mostly lazy but hey, I still posted this right? ^^ Till then!