Cakes and Conspiracies

I had my first post-swimming incident run-in with der Brotmeister yesterday. He saw me and made a beeline for me. I thought oh crap, he's going to want to give me swimming pointers or something, but that was apparently the last thing on his mind.

"Haff you heard about zat guy?" he asked me, all excited.

I don't know how I knew exactly who he meant, but I said "Litvinenko?"

Of course that was who he meant. Der Brotmeister shares my love of a good conspiracy theory, though he seems to actually believe them more than I do. My personal favorite of his is how the United States works behind the scenes to keep the world in a constant state of war because it's good for the American economy. Yes, and this from a native German. Nah, the Germans never started any wars. Heck, they are the softest, most loving pacifists around. No martial tradition there whatsoever.

But I digress.

After we discussed the likelihood of Putin being behind Litvinenko's poisoning rather than British security services, der Brotmeister said suddenly, with his typical Teutonic directness:

"I sink you are lookink forward to getting back to ze bakeshops. Zees classes now must be not very interesting for you. I sink zey are beyond you."

Beyond me? Excuse me, Chef?

"No, no, I mean beneat you. Zees classes now must be beneat you. I sink you haff already done all zat."

How true, Chef, how true.

On a related note, at about that moment, my most beloved chef, der Erlkonig (the original pastry pirate and friend of der Brotmeister), walked past, giggled and winked. It's funny how my day immediately improves whenever I see his elfin, slightly maniacal smile.

Instead of proving der Brotmeister right and whining more about my current classes, something I did enough of last week, I want to say how excited I am about my next class, just two weeks away: Special Occasion Cakes. Whoo hoo!

Quite fortuitously, my buddy Laura sent me this link, which is already giving me ideas. One of the assignments in Cakes Class is to create a "personal statement cake" that tells the world who you are. I'm thinking of a dominatrix cake, not because that's who I am, but it's how many people perceive me (I think it's the height, the love of black boots and my inability to suffer fools, though I chalk all that up to my German roots).

Besides, it's always good to keep your chefs both intrigued and unsettled.