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3rd Time's the Charm?

For New Year's Eve Dinner, I made a dish that I discovered and fell in love with this year, Arroz Con Pollo. (Yes, I wrote about that earlier- Lunch Club). This is the 3rd time I've made this dish now in the past year, and it still takes me over 2 hours! How can I not be cutting down the cooking time, when the author says it should take under 1 hour? I realize distractions in my kitchen do not help my efficiencies, but I should be getting better at dealing with that. I had two observers in my kitchen last night, but in 1 week I'll be in a kitchen with 20+ cooks! By now I think I should be able to operate with a few interruptions or 2nd quarter is going to be quite a challenge!

In Quarter 2 of Culinary School, my class of 27 students will be preparing the Student Lunch for the 150+ hopeful chefs & bakers in the entire program. It will be a very interesting challenge to say the least. During one of the 12 weeks, I will have to prepare 1 dish of my choice which I was hoping to be the above mentioned Hispanic treat. However, I really need to cut down on the cooking & prep time I'm at right now or it won't make the lunch deadline! We'll see how it goes...I start on January 5th, so wish me luck!

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