Presentation internship-Porta Elisa

Good Morning my name is Elisa Porta, I am sixteen years old, I live in Mondovì and I attend the third year at Giolitti Hospitality and Catering school. In this school you have to wear uniform formed by black shoes, black socks, gray trousers, white shirt and blue jacket and you can choose different addresses, I chose pastry because in the future I would like to open a pastry shop. This school gave me the occasion to make a internship that is an educational method that gives students the opportunity to develop new skills through periods spend in companies. I could spend a month from 7 February to 5 March from a pastry shop of my choice and I decided the pastry bar Comino.

Comino is a family business since 1892. It is located in Breo, historic center of mondovì, in the twentieth century was then opened the store in the street Sant'Agostino 26 in Mondovì, but over the years moved to street Guglielmo Marconi, a strategic position where it was possible to combine the pastry shop with a bar area. It is made of 4 pastry chefs who put passion into what they do and can explain very well. They were always good with me even when I committed mistakes in fact they had created a nice working atmosphere. Among these guys there was not my tutor, whose name was Carlo who is the owner of the pastry shop and came to visit us a few times for which I did not have the opportunity to know him as well as my colleagues.

My typical day began at 8.00 in the pastry shop where almost every morning I had to prepare a few liters of pastry cream and then I cleaned the baking sheets and baking paper. The morning continued with the preparation of the products that began to finish at the bar: for example, risole, baci di dama, paste di meliga, cupeta... or savoury preparations such as pizzas or focaccia. At 12.00 I had my lunch break and I went back to the pastry shop at 2.00 pm continuing to finish the preparations started in the morning or starting new recipes and at the end I had to clean the workshop and the tools.

I improved some of my skills like attention to detail taking care of everything to get a perfect result, I also learned to keep in order the work plan and tools which is a very important skill to be faster and to live better with more pastry chefs. In fact I also developed the ability to work in a team that allows you to divide roles. Finally I also learned to be faster in some steps since I had the opportunity to repeat the recipes several times throughout the month.

Although I wanted to prepare cakes and learn new recipes (in fact some parts of the work were made by more experienced pastry chefs leaving to me the conclusion of the preparations) this month I found myself well and I learned new skills useful for my future and for my growth. Also I found good with the staff especially with pastry chefs . With this internship I am convinced that the pastry is my passion and it is the job that I want to do in the future.