IT'S FOURTH HOUR. Sixteen hungry students wait around the kitchen table, waiting for those two magical words: "It's done!"

And in an instant, everything is gone. Everything.

Except for the mess.

Tuesday: French Day

Arriving early in the kitchen, I saw our teachers, sophomores Isaure Hostetter and Sian Best, taking out the ingredients for the first day of our class, World Food.

When asked what we would be making today, the reply was "croque-monsieurs." That's basically a grilled-cheese sandwich, but slightly more complicated and fancier than your regular cheese-between-bread. It was quite simple to make, depending on what was used — the traditional frying pan or patterned waffle toaster.

First, after washing our hands, we prepared the ingredients. I was assigned to cut a block of cold, hard cheese with a thin knife. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience, I assure you. Barely a third of the way through the block, my right hand started hurting from the pressure exerted on the blade and unyielding cheese. I can see why people buy cheese in presliced packages now.

Having taken so long with the cheese, I was extremely glad to make something to eat. Following Isaure and Sian's instructions, I buttered two slices of white bread. Turning the greased faces out, I added sliced deli turkey, swiss cheese, and cheddar cheese. At this point, it looked more or less like a normal sandwich, albeit with quite a bit of dairy products.

I waited in line for a few minutes until a spot at the waffle toaster was available. I quickly slid my sandwich from the Styrofoam plate and into one half before the lid came down, causing the butter to heat and sizzle.

Once the cheese was melted, I took out my extremely hot sandwich and laid it out to cool. Unable to wait, I burned my mouth on the first bite. It was quite a soggy yet delicious mixture. Since I didn't wait, at least half the cheese in my sandwich oozed out as my sandwich progressively grew smaller. My plate got slightly melted somewhere in the process, but I left feeling satisfied.

Teachers Isaure and Sian smile for a picture before digging into their lunches. Gargoyle photos by Jie Han. (Click to create a slideshow)

Sponsor Suzanne Linder and senior Jacob Olshansky work on cucumber sandwiches. (Click to create a slideshow)

Senior Lucy Zhang and Olshansky team up to prepare white sauce. (Click to create a slideshow)

Wednesday: English Day

Mmm! The scones and cucumber sandwiches were absolutely delicious!

Instead of just one recipe, we were divided up for this day into three groups — Sian's scones, Isaure's scones, and cucumber sandwiches. I helped make Sian's scones, which were a simple mix of milk, margarine, flour, sugar, and baking powder.

The only difficulty was that we didn't have any measuring cups. Luckily, Sian had already prepared the first batch of dough and measured out most of the second. But, unluckily, she poured out too much milk for the second crop.

The first batch was relatively easy to make. I rolled the dough into a roughly circular shape before dividing it all up with a cookie cutter. The second batch had too much milk, so we scrambled to find more flour, sugar, and the right amount of baking powder.

After we finished a panful, we went to the oven, only to find it occupied by one batch of Isaure's fruit scones. The oven could hold only one pan at a time, so baking would take awhile.

Since many people were hungry and didn't want to wait 20 minutes, everyone dived for the tall pile of cucumber sandwiches. Since each sandwich was cut into fourths, almost everyone got four shares before everything was gone.

With at least another 10 minutes before the next batch of scones, several people became rather desperate and started eating the raw fruit batter. I tried microwaving some, but they ended up half burnt and half uncooked.

Finally, the fruit scones were judged to be edible. There weren't enough of them for everyone to have an entire one, so they were cut in half. They rapidly disappeared — and they were scrumptious! They were sweet, with the occasional bursts of melted blueberry and chewy dried cranberry.

Ten minutes later, Sian's scones had barely turned golden brown before they were whisked out of the oven. Those were also divided and eaten with lightning speed; a magician couldn't have made them disappear as quickly. These were piping hot and sweet, exactly how breakfast scones are supposed to taste. Or maybe dessert ones.

Thursday: Italian Day

Have you ever tried fresh garden pasta or pasta with white sauce? Because if you haven't, you really should get some for yourself. In class, I worked on the garden pasta sauce, which contained freshly chopped basil, freshly diced baby tomatoes, olive oil, cheese, and optional parmesan.

Once I finished washing the basil and helping out with the tomatoes, I watched over two pots of boiling pasta. Unfortunately, we had forgotten one of the boxes, and it was added in halfway through the process. As a result, one pot was mostly done (with a couple hard spots) while the other contained both done and half-boiled pasta.

The white sauce made by Sian looked quite good, except that the pasta-to-sauce ratio was quite skewed. But still, it was very filling and didn't burn a hole through my plate. The garden salad was very crisp and zesty, especially with the full-flavored tomatoes. By the time I went for seconds, only bits of basil, tomatoes, and oil residue remained.

Friday: Random Day

A variety of foods appeared on the menu the final day, from fried rice to fried dumplings, lentils to pasta, and two batches of brownies. My favorite was the pasta, followed closely by the brownies. I think there was cheese inside the pasta; but whatever it was, it was very delicious.

I cooked the fried rice, which didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it. I brought a large pot of rice from home to make fried rice, with others supplying and preparing the green peas, shrimp, eggs, and carrots. Since this was my first time actually making fried rice myself (I only knew the theory), I enlisted the help of senior Emily Chu.

Short on cooking utensils, we managed to find enough pans and other miscellaneous items to hold half-done ingredients, like the scrambled eggs and thawed shrimp. We were luckier than some, such as those who had to use a baking pan to cook fried dumplings.

But we had a big problem of our own, namely the rice that was the base of our dish. It was much too sticky for our recipe, though it would have made fairly good sushi rice. As a result, the starch stuck to the bottom of our pot, so the rest of the rice wouldn't turn golden brown. In addition, we had to switch pots between batches; otherwise, the bottom would burn with the stuck rice.

The end result was OK. Although it didn't have the feel of restaurant fried rice, it was passable (except for the second batch, in which we forgot the salt). Next time, I'll just get some restaurant rice, like Emily.

So how was the class? I signed up because I wanted to learn how to make new recipes and explore different kinds of food. Looking back on the four days, I think we did that. The dishes were excellent, and there was an impressive amount of cooperation among students in making the food.

The only downside was that we ran short of food by the last day. But even that turned out fine, because we all ended up bringing in our own contributions on Friday for a potluck — and the food was great.

WORLD FOOD

NOTE: Click any photo to start your own slideshow — then keep clicking.

Students and faculty sponsor Suzanne Linder assemble their croque-monsieurs one piece at a time. Photos by Jie Han (click photos to enlarge)

A finished croque-monsieur, fresh out of the waffle toaster and ready to eat.

Finished scones await the oven on plates while more are being made.

A view of the finished pile of cucumber sandwiches.

Fruit scones are being created at maximum speed.

Several members of the class eagerly wait for everyone else to finish so they can divide up the remaining sandwiches.

A group of chefs-to-be stand around, awaiting instructions.

Pasta is served!

An appetizing meal of fresh garden salad.

Dishes are prepared in anticipation of the last-day potluck.