Allow me, if you will, to attempt an explanation of Duchess County liquor laws. First of all, beer, wine, and hard liquor cannot all be sold in the same store. Grocery stores can sell beer until 9pm. Beer stores (which only sell beer) can sell beer until 11pm. Liquor and wine stores are only open until 7pm. These are the things that I learned Friday night. The end result of that evening is that I now have lots of limes and tonic water, but no gin. It was truly, truly unfortunate.
On Saturday, I went to New York City for the day. I left school at 8am, got to the train station at 8:30 and hurriedly had to park my car and buy my ticket and make it to the platform in time for the 8:40 train. Luckily, years of navigating and walking quickly through the world’s largest children’s museum have taught me how to walk with purpose. I made it. The train ride was interesting. Coming from Indianapolis, public transportation is a little foreign to me. The ride was about two hours long and took us right into Grand Central Station. That place was actually a little more impressive that I had anticipated. There is marble everywhere and it only smelled like urine a little bit. I went with Jen and Katie to meet Andrew Bornstein (a friend from my Le Moyne College years) at Rockefeller Center. This is when it started to rain. It was already less than 40 degrees with wind chill and the rain did not help. We decided to find some Indian food, so Jen and I pulled out our iPhones and did a little research. The place we wanted to go was closed, but being NYC and all, there was another Indian restaurant across the street. When we sat down, my hair was literally dripping wet from the rain. Not fun. Luckily, there are few things in life that make me as happy as an Indian lunch buffet.
After lunch, Katie wanted to go to some really big candy store to get some special candies that her mom likes. The walk over was simply miserable in the rain, cold, and wind, so I broke down and bought an umbrella. It was perhaps the second best purchase that I have made in my entire life (the first being the Dinosphere cup at the museum. $6 five years ago gave me free drinks at the museum for life). The umbrella made my life so much easier. After the candy store, we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was crowded, but it didn’t even matter because the museum is so large. We were there for about 4 hours. I could have spent the rest of the night there but the others were getting really restless. There was a really cool exhibit about how art reflects societal changes and history. While this may be obvious, the gallery did an awesome job of interpreting the paintings and explaining what part of history they reflect. I wish more art museums would do this. A painting just hanging on a wall can be beautiful. But when it is explained, it becomes beautiful and meaningful. I guess this is my Children’s Museum background speaking again….
We left the museum around six and it had started snowing. We had all intention of searching out some good ol’ New York City pizza, but the snow and cold got the best of us, so we took a taxi back to Grand Central. We ended up just eating some pizza at the train station. It was not great, but it served its purpose. When we got back to Poughkeepsie. There was about a quarter of an inch of snow on the ground. The campus is really pretty with some snow. There are a bunch of evergreen tress on Anton Plaza that have been decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments. There are also a bunch of banners with clever sayings like “Merry Crispness”, “Season’s Eatings”, “Soy to the World” and “Happy Hollandaise”. Haha…oh god…I love this school.
On Monday, I got a bunch a quizzes and project grade back. I don’t think I have ever been more proud of myself. I think for the first time in a while, I am really trying hard in school. I’d always been successful at the museum. But in the classroom, I could never see how analyzing poetry applied to my life. Here, though, I don’t just want to learn the material; I want to master it. I am actually learning the information that will be vital to my success as a chef. I got a perfect grade on my last two math tests, I got an A and an A- on my Product knowledge tests, I got a perfect on my cauliflower paper, an A on my last Gastronomy test, and A’s on all my Writing papers and assignments. I honestly couldn’t be happier.
It’s only Tuesday afternoon, so I haven’t done much in class this week. Math is finally starting to get kind of interesting and challenging, though. We are putting together everything we learned so far and are costing out individual dishes and menus in order to take into account waste and labor costs. Then, we are creating food purchase orders based on out menus and such. Who ever thought that I’d be learning about business? We did a unit on tomatoes, peppers, chilies, and squash in product knowledge. Writing was canceled this morning, and in Gastronomy we discussed New American Haute Cuisine.
A word on palate development: *Ahem* Fish is gross. I really want to like it. Salmon is everywhere. People rave over scallops. Tuna is as present on a menu now as chicken is. However, I cant seem to get past it’s grossness. I have been trying so hard to like it. There is a breaded flounder appetizer that is served over a tartar sauce slaw that I have been able to eat all of. However, every time I am given a salmon filet, I can make it though about a third of it before I want to reach down and rip my stomach out. And the third that I do eat, I cover up the flavor with horseradish mashed potatoes. Last night, the amuse bouche at dinner was a Haddock fritter with pink sauce. I popped it in my mouth and immediately regretted it. I was chewing and chewing trying not to gag. It took an entire glass of water to help me get it down. I want to try these things and develop a taste for them, but I am really struggling.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Eggs Benedict
It’s been a little while since I updated. Sorry everybody. Life kind of got interrupted by Thanksgiving Break.
The last few days before the break were a little bit of a scramble. I had work to finish before leaving town for five days. It was also the half-way mark for B-Block. Only 2.5 more weeks and we will be in the kitchen! As I have mentioned to most of you before, at the CIA, there is a graduation ceremony every three weeks. So on the day that I was getting ready to go home, there was a graduating class going through the motions of leaving the school. Here, that means lots of food. For the day before graduation, there is The Grand Buffet in Farq Hall. Most every class sets up a table and they basically show off what they have learned how to do. The Skills classes have big roast meats and perfectly cut veggies; Asia’s class has huge sushi platters; Garde Manger has terrines galore and lots of aspics. You get the idea…. Well, we are allowed to exchange a meal swipe for a ticket to Grand Buffet. You go in and eat whatever you want. The only problem is that there is not enough room to seat everybody. Also, The Catering & Banquets kitchen shut down for a few days to prepare for the buffet and graduation meal, so I was free to eat wherever I wanted for dinner. It was a nice change.
I also picked up my uniforms. The jackets are nice and medium weight. They have our names embroidered on them. The pants are actually a lot better than I expected. Mine are kind of big right now, but I’m told that they shrink after washing them a few times. The hats, though, are a little ridiculous. I’m not a big fan of tall paper hats. We even received our Table Service uniforms. We won’t need them until our final semester here, but I guess it’s nice to have them already.
After going home, I was very eager to return to school and finish B-Block. The night of getting back, I got a bunch of homework done and cleaned the room a bit. On Tuesday, I went to Writing in the morning and got a few of my papers back. I’m doing well and Prof. Genee seems to like my writing style. I just need to remember to proof read more…I’m not at Ivy Tech anymore. In Gastronomy that afternoon, we took a quiz and listened to some presentations on Haute Cuisine. The majority of the students at this school completely massacre the French language. Seriously, really simple words like Escoffier and auberge become unrecognizable. I think I might have made an enemy in a boy I who I don’t know while trying to help him pronounce les pièce montées. It’s a good story; you should ask me about it some time…I was denied a cookie.
Wednesday was spent in Math where we got (another) group project. I’m working with Stephanie and Katie, so it should be fine. We have to scale a recipe for taco salad into ridiculously large proportions and then fill out a purchasing order based on product yield and edible portion quantities. Fun, right? In Product Knowledge, we had a lesson on tubers and onions. The best part of that class is always the tasting that we do. How often in life do you get to do side-by-side comparisons of 10 types of potatoes? I learned the following: local varieties of yellow potatoes are the best thing you will ever eat, and fingerlings are delicious with salt and rosemary. Additionally, I will never ever like jicama. It has always and will always taste like crunchy grass.
That evening, I was preparing for my Paul Bocuse project. I was responsible for making up and copying the handout that we were going to use. It ended up being four pages long. So, I went to the library to print and make 40 copies. Things did not go well. Suffice it to say that after two trips back to my room, a trip to the bookstore, a ream of paper, a new toner roll, and a rainstorm later, I finally got the packets made. I even finished my work in time to go see The Blind Side at the movie theatre at the mall. I went with Anthony, Katie, and Anthony’s friend Lydia. It was actually really good. I was surprised at how good of an actress Sandra Bullock is. The bad thing: we didn’t get back to campus until midnight and I had to be awake at 5:00am. Boo.
This morning I had Writing again. We have started having the first 20-30 minutes of class in Farq Hall so that we can eat breakfast while we discuss our readings or edit work, etc. It’s been really pleasant. I have either a chorizo burrito or classic eggs Benedict with bacon and breakfast potatoes. Sometimes I have a raspberry yogurt as well….depending on my mood. I wash it down with a cup of hazelnut coffee and a glass of orange juice. Needless to say, I don’t usually have room for lunch on these days. While in class, I figured out the thesis for the first essay that I have to have done for January. I’m going to compare Jackson’s The Lottery and Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant while discussing how societies that repeatedly face injustices are often desensitized and have a hard time realizing, yet alone overcoming, the problem. I miss going to a school where a 4-page essay is not regarded as “challenging’. Also, we had a grammar lesson on how to use apostrophes. Really? I need to learn how to make words plural and use possessives? Oh well…
I also had the pleasure of giving my Paul Bocuse project today. It actually went really well. I have no problem talking in front of groups as long as I am confident in the information I am presenting. Katie said that we did better than any of the other groups and Prof. Forrest didn’t have much to add on at the end, so I think we will do well. It’s worth 25% of our final grade.
Tomorrow I have my first big Product Knowledge test over salad greens, cooking greens, cabbages, stalk vegetables, flowers, mushrooms, tubers, and onions. I went to the storeroom already today and maybe I will go back right before the quiz for a little refresher. I also have a test in Math tomorrow morning. I’m not as worried about that one. I’ll let you now how those go. Also, this weekend I am planning a trip into NYC for the day on Saturday. The train ride is only 1.5 hours right into Grand Central. I’m going with Katie and we are going to meet up with Andrew Bornstein from Le Moyne. He lives in northern New Jersey, and it will be great to see him again. I’ll keep you all updated on that as well.
Are these posts interesting to all of you? Am I talking too much about mundane details? Are there things that I’m not talking about that you want to know? Let me know. E-mail me or leave a comment here. Let me know how your lives are going too!
The last few days before the break were a little bit of a scramble. I had work to finish before leaving town for five days. It was also the half-way mark for B-Block. Only 2.5 more weeks and we will be in the kitchen! As I have mentioned to most of you before, at the CIA, there is a graduation ceremony every three weeks. So on the day that I was getting ready to go home, there was a graduating class going through the motions of leaving the school. Here, that means lots of food. For the day before graduation, there is The Grand Buffet in Farq Hall. Most every class sets up a table and they basically show off what they have learned how to do. The Skills classes have big roast meats and perfectly cut veggies; Asia’s class has huge sushi platters; Garde Manger has terrines galore and lots of aspics. You get the idea…. Well, we are allowed to exchange a meal swipe for a ticket to Grand Buffet. You go in and eat whatever you want. The only problem is that there is not enough room to seat everybody. Also, The Catering & Banquets kitchen shut down for a few days to prepare for the buffet and graduation meal, so I was free to eat wherever I wanted for dinner. It was a nice change.
I also picked up my uniforms. The jackets are nice and medium weight. They have our names embroidered on them. The pants are actually a lot better than I expected. Mine are kind of big right now, but I’m told that they shrink after washing them a few times. The hats, though, are a little ridiculous. I’m not a big fan of tall paper hats. We even received our Table Service uniforms. We won’t need them until our final semester here, but I guess it’s nice to have them already.
After going home, I was very eager to return to school and finish B-Block. The night of getting back, I got a bunch of homework done and cleaned the room a bit. On Tuesday, I went to Writing in the morning and got a few of my papers back. I’m doing well and Prof. Genee seems to like my writing style. I just need to remember to proof read more…I’m not at Ivy Tech anymore. In Gastronomy that afternoon, we took a quiz and listened to some presentations on Haute Cuisine. The majority of the students at this school completely massacre the French language. Seriously, really simple words like Escoffier and auberge become unrecognizable. I think I might have made an enemy in a boy I who I don’t know while trying to help him pronounce les pièce montées. It’s a good story; you should ask me about it some time…I was denied a cookie.
Wednesday was spent in Math where we got (another) group project. I’m working with Stephanie and Katie, so it should be fine. We have to scale a recipe for taco salad into ridiculously large proportions and then fill out a purchasing order based on product yield and edible portion quantities. Fun, right? In Product Knowledge, we had a lesson on tubers and onions. The best part of that class is always the tasting that we do. How often in life do you get to do side-by-side comparisons of 10 types of potatoes? I learned the following: local varieties of yellow potatoes are the best thing you will ever eat, and fingerlings are delicious with salt and rosemary. Additionally, I will never ever like jicama. It has always and will always taste like crunchy grass.
That evening, I was preparing for my Paul Bocuse project. I was responsible for making up and copying the handout that we were going to use. It ended up being four pages long. So, I went to the library to print and make 40 copies. Things did not go well. Suffice it to say that after two trips back to my room, a trip to the bookstore, a ream of paper, a new toner roll, and a rainstorm later, I finally got the packets made. I even finished my work in time to go see The Blind Side at the movie theatre at the mall. I went with Anthony, Katie, and Anthony’s friend Lydia. It was actually really good. I was surprised at how good of an actress Sandra Bullock is. The bad thing: we didn’t get back to campus until midnight and I had to be awake at 5:00am. Boo.
This morning I had Writing again. We have started having the first 20-30 minutes of class in Farq Hall so that we can eat breakfast while we discuss our readings or edit work, etc. It’s been really pleasant. I have either a chorizo burrito or classic eggs Benedict with bacon and breakfast potatoes. Sometimes I have a raspberry yogurt as well….depending on my mood. I wash it down with a cup of hazelnut coffee and a glass of orange juice. Needless to say, I don’t usually have room for lunch on these days. While in class, I figured out the thesis for the first essay that I have to have done for January. I’m going to compare Jackson’s The Lottery and Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant while discussing how societies that repeatedly face injustices are often desensitized and have a hard time realizing, yet alone overcoming, the problem. I miss going to a school where a 4-page essay is not regarded as “challenging’. Also, we had a grammar lesson on how to use apostrophes. Really? I need to learn how to make words plural and use possessives? Oh well…
I also had the pleasure of giving my Paul Bocuse project today. It actually went really well. I have no problem talking in front of groups as long as I am confident in the information I am presenting. Katie said that we did better than any of the other groups and Prof. Forrest didn’t have much to add on at the end, so I think we will do well. It’s worth 25% of our final grade.
Tomorrow I have my first big Product Knowledge test over salad greens, cooking greens, cabbages, stalk vegetables, flowers, mushrooms, tubers, and onions. I went to the storeroom already today and maybe I will go back right before the quiz for a little refresher. I also have a test in Math tomorrow morning. I’m not as worried about that one. I’ll let you now how those go. Also, this weekend I am planning a trip into NYC for the day on Saturday. The train ride is only 1.5 hours right into Grand Central. I’m going with Katie and we are going to meet up with Andrew Bornstein from Le Moyne. He lives in northern New Jersey, and it will be great to see him again. I’ll keep you all updated on that as well.
Are these posts interesting to all of you? Am I talking too much about mundane details? Are there things that I’m not talking about that you want to know? Let me know. E-mail me or leave a comment here. Let me know how your lives are going too!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Beaucoup de Bocuse
I’m settling in quite nicely now. I have developed a few good friendships, conversations are becoming more relaxed, I don’t get (as) lost anymore in Roth Hall (story below), and my roommates and I seem to be getting along well.
Two new friends of note are Jen and Katie. Jen is 22 and from Florida. She is really funny and willing to go out and do things. She reminds me quite a bit of Laura Karr. Also, since she is over 21, she and I went to a local bar, Darby’s, on Friday night. We went kinda early to take advantage of Happy Hour. It was nice talking to her and checking out the local bar scene. Once it started getting late, around midnight, the bar filled up with students from The Culinary. It’s literally a ½ mile from the school, so I understand why students here go there so often. And it’s so cheap. I had 4 gin and tonics and only paid $13 with tip! That would have been at least $24 at Chatham Tap.
Last night, Saturday, Katie and I went to a gay dance club called Primetime over in Highland. Katie is 18 and from Chicago. She is a lot like Kumari from the museum. Highland is just over the bridge from Poughkeepsie, about 10 minutes from here. I guess the experience can be summed up in the word: typical. Like from the very moment I walked in, I knew I was no longer in Indy or even Syracuse. This is the country of the Hudson Valley. Katie and I showed up just after 11:30pm, hoping that the party would be in full swing. We were both correct and incorrect. It was pretty much just two rooms. The first just had a bar. The second room was the dance floor/stage. There were probably just about 50 people there. 40 of them were over the age of 30-35. I guess you can’t expect much from Highland, NY. While the club may have been pretty lame, it was fun dancing with Katie and being around good (read as: gay) music.
I guess since this about my culinary adventure, I should talk about school a little. Yes? Ok…
On Tuesday afternoon I met with Chrissy and Stephanie to work on our project for Gastronomy. We have to do a 20-minute presentation on Paul Bocuse. He is a chef from France who, in the 60’s and 70’s helped to create the field of nouvelle cuisine. This movement took the classic French haute cuisine and lightened it up a little and made it more regional. This meant that I got to spend several hours in the Conrad Hilton Library. Really, I kind of loved it. Our library is beautiful. It has a large marble entryway and several floors. It is also completely filled with books on food, chefs, gastronomy, and food science. My part of the presentation is on Bocuse’s philosophy and how it shaped future generations of chef’s. It’s been a lot of fun looking into his life and studying how his food changed as he got older. The tough part is that we have to make this presentation creative and interactive. While this is often a component of class presentations, I don’t think that professors ever realize how lame it always is. The presenters feel awkward and the class does not want to get involved. Maybe we’ll cook something for the class. I don’t know yet. The library also has some big, comfy, leather chairs in front of a wall of windows. I find myself going there to do my class reading or when I have some downtime just to look at the 76,000 volume collection of cookbooks. Serisouly, this place is crazy.
On Friday in Product Knowledge, we had our first quiz. It covered principals of purchasing, basic agriculture, the distribution chain, as well as the identification of some basic salad greens. In order to study, on Thursday afternoon, Jen, Chrissy, and I took a trip to the storeroom. I am sure you all know where this is going. I had only ever been there once and it was through a door in the back of the Anheiser-Bush Theatre that leads directly to the storeroom. So, I knew it was in the basement somewhere, but wasn’t sure where. Well, we end up on a staircase that takes us directly into the Meat Fabrication room. Wrong. The we try another staircase that takes us out of the building. Wrong. Then we try a ramp that leads us to a window to the storeroom. Closer, but still wrong. Eventually, we just decide to get to the basement the only way we know how, by the mailroom. We just start walking around until we find the right hallway to the storeroom. Trying to study produce in a giant walk-in refrigerator is an interesting experience. Nothing is actually labeled, so we have to figure it out by looking at little pictures that have been printed out from our powerpoints in class. Then, you also have to avoid piles of chicken stock, cases of beets, and puddles of water while trying to stay out of the way of the storeroom staff. Now, if anybody ever needs to tell the difference between beet greens, swiss chard, and mustard greens, I am your man.
This upcoming week is shortened because of Thanksgiving break. We only have three days of class. I’m going to a Chilean wine tasting on Tuesday with Stephanie. This should be fun…
Two new friends of note are Jen and Katie. Jen is 22 and from Florida. She is really funny and willing to go out and do things. She reminds me quite a bit of Laura Karr. Also, since she is over 21, she and I went to a local bar, Darby’s, on Friday night. We went kinda early to take advantage of Happy Hour. It was nice talking to her and checking out the local bar scene. Once it started getting late, around midnight, the bar filled up with students from The Culinary. It’s literally a ½ mile from the school, so I understand why students here go there so often. And it’s so cheap. I had 4 gin and tonics and only paid $13 with tip! That would have been at least $24 at Chatham Tap.
Last night, Saturday, Katie and I went to a gay dance club called Primetime over in Highland. Katie is 18 and from Chicago. She is a lot like Kumari from the museum. Highland is just over the bridge from Poughkeepsie, about 10 minutes from here. I guess the experience can be summed up in the word: typical. Like from the very moment I walked in, I knew I was no longer in Indy or even Syracuse. This is the country of the Hudson Valley. Katie and I showed up just after 11:30pm, hoping that the party would be in full swing. We were both correct and incorrect. It was pretty much just two rooms. The first just had a bar. The second room was the dance floor/stage. There were probably just about 50 people there. 40 of them were over the age of 30-35. I guess you can’t expect much from Highland, NY. While the club may have been pretty lame, it was fun dancing with Katie and being around good (read as: gay) music.
I guess since this about my culinary adventure, I should talk about school a little. Yes? Ok…
On Tuesday afternoon I met with Chrissy and Stephanie to work on our project for Gastronomy. We have to do a 20-minute presentation on Paul Bocuse. He is a chef from France who, in the 60’s and 70’s helped to create the field of nouvelle cuisine. This movement took the classic French haute cuisine and lightened it up a little and made it more regional. This meant that I got to spend several hours in the Conrad Hilton Library. Really, I kind of loved it. Our library is beautiful. It has a large marble entryway and several floors. It is also completely filled with books on food, chefs, gastronomy, and food science. My part of the presentation is on Bocuse’s philosophy and how it shaped future generations of chef’s. It’s been a lot of fun looking into his life and studying how his food changed as he got older. The tough part is that we have to make this presentation creative and interactive. While this is often a component of class presentations, I don’t think that professors ever realize how lame it always is. The presenters feel awkward and the class does not want to get involved. Maybe we’ll cook something for the class. I don’t know yet. The library also has some big, comfy, leather chairs in front of a wall of windows. I find myself going there to do my class reading or when I have some downtime just to look at the 76,000 volume collection of cookbooks. Serisouly, this place is crazy.
On Friday in Product Knowledge, we had our first quiz. It covered principals of purchasing, basic agriculture, the distribution chain, as well as the identification of some basic salad greens. In order to study, on Thursday afternoon, Jen, Chrissy, and I took a trip to the storeroom. I am sure you all know where this is going. I had only ever been there once and it was through a door in the back of the Anheiser-Bush Theatre that leads directly to the storeroom. So, I knew it was in the basement somewhere, but wasn’t sure where. Well, we end up on a staircase that takes us directly into the Meat Fabrication room. Wrong. The we try another staircase that takes us out of the building. Wrong. Then we try a ramp that leads us to a window to the storeroom. Closer, but still wrong. Eventually, we just decide to get to the basement the only way we know how, by the mailroom. We just start walking around until we find the right hallway to the storeroom. Trying to study produce in a giant walk-in refrigerator is an interesting experience. Nothing is actually labeled, so we have to figure it out by looking at little pictures that have been printed out from our powerpoints in class. Then, you also have to avoid piles of chicken stock, cases of beets, and puddles of water while trying to stay out of the way of the storeroom staff. Now, if anybody ever needs to tell the difference between beet greens, swiss chard, and mustard greens, I am your man.
This upcoming week is shortened because of Thanksgiving break. We only have three days of class. I’m going to a Chilean wine tasting on Tuesday with Stephanie. This should be fun…
Monday, November 16, 2009
Weekend No. 1
Friday morning started off with another session of Culinary Math. I would love for Caitlin to sit in on this class. She would laugh at the kinds of things we do. Seriously, the hardest thing we do in this class is convert form US Standard to Metric. I really like our instructor; she does not mess around. She teaches us a concept, then we do homework on it, then we move on. There is no time for review. It’s funny to watch the people in class who have not been to college before. It’s a complete adjustment for them. I am really happy that I have been to both Le Moyne and Ivy Tech. I feel ridiculously prepared and able to study. I’m looking forward to learning how to cost out a menu. It’s one of the only things that I have zero experience with in the culinary world. It will be nice to learn something new and be challenged.
Again, on Friday afternoon, I had Product Knowledge. I think that this will be my favorite class in B-Block. Right now, we are still learning basic botany. We are talking about the process that fruits and vegetable go through as they grow and develop. This will help set us up for the next five weeks. We will be going through the basic groups of produce and learn not only to identify them, but also how to pick out the most ideal one and describe their stages of development and ripeness. My instructor used to be in charge of purchasing produce and dairy for the school. She really knows her products. I would guess that she would be one of the best produce purchasers in the country, seeing as how she used to buy for the CIA. I am really looking forward to the caliber of instructors here.
On Friday night, I drove my friend Eric to the train station so that he could go home for the evening. I then spent the night hanging out with Chrissy, Justin, Rosemary, and Chris. Weekends here are kinda boring. I don’t really know too many people and several of them are under 21, so it makes going out hard. I just learned where some good bars are, so hopefully next weekend will be better. Saturday was spent going out to lunch and doing a little shopping. Then we went out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I had a sushi platter and it was delicious. Sunday was equally as borning. I woke up early and did some homework, then went to the Courtside Café for lunch. It is the only campus dining option on the weekends. Eating here on the weekends are going to get expensive. We are inundated with food during the week, but on the weekend there are so few options. It pretty much leaves eating out or cooking for ourselves. The kitchens in the dorms are pretty nice, but there is not much room and the provided pans are crap. Also, they have weird hours. So for dinner on Sunday, I went to Panera and had a delicious sandwich. Then it was back to campus for even more homework. I’m trying really hard not to get behind. I really want to do well here…
Today, Monday, was not much different from last Friday. I have decided to start working out again. I found the erg in the gym and used it last night and tonight. It’s a Concept II version D (about 5 years old). Sadly, though, the screen/computer are broken. It makes it tough to know how hard I am working or how far I have gone. I kinda just have to remember how it used to feel. I guess that it could be a good thing and make me focus on my pressure and technique instead of doing erging math (you rowers know what I’m talking about…) People just stare at me when I use it. I’m guessing they are not used to people erging. It is stuck tightly in between two pieces of weight equipment and the fan has a layer of dust. The chain that connects the handle to the fan is starting to rust. I think I’m going to talk to the weight room manager to see what it would take to fix the erg and get it working well again.
That’s all for now…the rest of this week should be pretty much like last…I’ll keep you updated.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Finding Fish and Forcemeats
So, I realized that I never explained the title of my last post.
As part of orientation, we took a tour of campus. As my group was walking past the rec center, a group of upperclassmen started yelling things like “hey b-blockers” (B-Block is the first set of classes at the CIA), “don’t get demerits!” “wear your neckerchiefs!” and “do you have a carrot peeling attitude?” Well, you know how certain things stick with you through the day and you can’t get them out of you mind? As I was falling asleep that night, I started imagining what the hell this kid must have done in order to be told that he had a carrot-peeling attitude. Like, he must have rolled his eyes and groaned when he was asked to peel carrots or something.
Well, the next day, we had a lecture from Tim Ryan, CMC. He is the president of the CIA. He’s kind of a big deal. He has made the CIA what it is today. He turned it into less of a trade school and more of the culinary education headquarters that it is today. In addition to being the world’s leader on culinary education, he is also a Certified Master Chef (CMC). Certified Master Chefs go through a two-week intensive practical and written evaluation. It’s ridiculously hard. Eighty percent of people who start it either fail or drop out. These guys are like the Nobel Prize winners of the culinary world. Anyway, Tim Ryan is kind of an intimidating man. He gave us a welcome speech and some tips to help us succeed at The Culinary. He was explaining how our attitude will determine our altitude. I know…how trite? He launched into this really long imaginary scenario about a student getting an externship at the French Laundry with Chef Keller. This student is then assigned to peel and brunoise (a 1/8th inch cube knife cut…. It takes forever, especially on a carrot) 300 pounds of carrots on his first day. It takes him a long time, but he gets it done. The extern is then assigned the exact same task the next day. But this time he is not so thrilled. He then does the same thing on day four and five. By day 6 he has an awful attitude and is asked to leave. President Ryan told us instead, we should keep a positive attitude and turn the carrot task into a game. We should time ourselves and look at the 300 pounds of carrots as a way to improve in the kitchen. He refers to this as having a “carrot peeling attitude”. Apparently he is really proud of this story and scenario and tells it to every incoming class. It looks like it has become a campus wide joke.
This morning I had Writing. It looks like it’s going to be super easy. There is a lot of busy work, but the assignments sound like things I wrote freshman year at Le Moyne. However, even our books of essays and style are about food and food writing. The hardest part will be getting up at 5:30am two days a week for the next 15 weeks. The instructor for that class, though, used to be an editor at Wine Enthusiast magazine. One of the things that I might like to do after CIA is work for a magazine or cookbook company doing recipe testing and development. I will be talking to her soon to see what ideas she has as far as my externship goes. I think she could be an excellent resource.
After that class, I have 45 minutes until my next class. So, I went down to the Apple Pie Bakery and Café (one of the public restaurants on campus) with a girl, Chrissy, who I have eaten with a few times and sat with in class. I made the really poor choice of taking a staircase that I have never been on before. We were going to stop by the copy center and mailboxes in the basement before eating. Well, when we got the basement, instead of exiting into a hallway we recongnized, we were overwhelmed with the smell of meat and fish. Turns out we had entered the Seafood Fabrication and Garde Manger (sausages, patte’, and forcemeats) After walking in a few circles, we eventually made it to mailroom and then Apple Pie Bakery. I had a cup of Chai latte and this gigantic scone that was filled with cheddar cheese, chunks of ham, and some scallions. Delicious. This school is going to make me into a Fatty McFatfat Fatterson. I found out yesterday that this school goes through 4,000 pounds of butter a week. That is ridiculous. To put that into perspective, one of those boxes of four sticks of butter weighs a pound. We use 4,000 of them!
After breakfast, I had Introduction to Gastronomy. The class will go through tastes and preferences and why they exist, a history of European and American Haute Cuisine, as well as new trends in food and agriculture. I have to do a group presentation. I am working with Chrissy and Stephanie, a girl who I have gotten to know too. I think it could be an interesting class. I really love the professor. She is a PhD candidate in Food Anthropology at Boston University. I think I’ll be able to learn a lot from her. She is really funny too. Most of my classes right now meet in the Anheiser-Busch Theatre. It’s a big lecture hall/demo kitchen and the main door to the room has a bunch of windows. Every tour that comes through stops in front of the theatre, and they hear about the classes and guest lectures that happen on campus. Well, Prof. Forrest wants us to be friendly. So, every time a tour group stops out front the theatre, she says the word “perogies” and we are all to turn around and wave at the tour. It catches them off guard and is funny to watch.
Speaking of tourists, there are constantly tons of people visiting the school! I had no idea that so many people would be interested in visiting the CIA. Yesterday, two tour buses of elderly people pulled up out front. For the next several hours, the main floor of Roth Hall was filled with geriatrics as they toured, shopped, and ate in the restaurants. I have seen lots of high schoolers, families, and vacationers as well. Every time I walk through Anton Plaza (our version of a quad) there are visitors taking in the views. I try to be friendly and smile and say hello. I still know how they feel, amazed and overwhelmed to be at such an amazing school. I really really want to be a tour guide, but I’m going to wait until I stop getting lost in Roth Hall before I apply….
I’m gonna have to stop eating so much. All the new students are talking about how full we constantly are. I don’t think I have mentioned this, but every night at 5:30 for dinner, I am required to eat at K-17, the Banquets and Catering kitchen. Our Product Knowledge instructor gives us a grade just for showing up as part of our palate development. A meal from K-17 usually lasts an hour. It’s a sit-down, three course meal (appetizer, main course and sides, and a dessert). It is also the only time when we are going to get waited on and have our food brought to us. It’s just a lot of food to eat in addition to breakfast or lunch every day. I think I’m going to have to start working out again too (4,000 pounds of butter!) The website for the student gym says that there is an erg, but I have not been able to find it. Perhaps I’ll go down there this afternoon/evening to look for it.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Carrot Peeling Attitude
Ok. I started my trip to New York on Thursday morning. I drove for right around twelve hours to Syracuse. I spent the next two days hanging out with friends at Le Moyne College. It was so nice to see them again. It's funny how we are the exact same people, but at the same time we have all grown up so much.
Anyway, I drove down to Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon and met my Mom at our hotel. We both took some time to rest after our drives before going out to dinner. Hyde Park itself is kinda gross. It's very small town and is just kinda stuck along Route 9 between Marist College and the Vanderbilt estate. I would say that its only redeming quality is the CIA and the FDR house and presidential library. So, Mom and I went to the town just north of Hyde Park called Rhinebeck. It is perhaps the cutest, most awesome town I have ever seen. For those of you from Indy, it's a lot like Broad Ripple, only bigger and better. For those of you from Syracuse, it's a lot like Armory Square, only much much bigger and better. Rhinebeck is filled with cute shops and tons of really good restaurants. Mom and I ended up at a place called Terrapin. It's in an converted church building. The cuisine was the food that I love, New American. It was very birsto-esque and seasonal. Delicious!
The next morning, Mom and I went to brunch and killed some time at the FDR estate and then I had to move in. I have never been so nervous about doing anything in my life. We unpacked the car and started moving things into my room. My roommate Robert was here and was very helpful. Anthony showed up not too long after. They have both been super friendly. Our room is kinda cramped and we are each on really different schedules, but we are making it work.
Stepping onto the CIA campus for the first time was incredibly sureal. I have been looking at pictures of the buildings, grounds, and kitchen for 4 years. To actually see them and have class in them is amazing. The main building, Roth Hall, is an old Jesuit monestary. It is deceivingly large. From the outside, it looks like a four story, rectangular building. In actuality, there are five or six floors that go in a "U" shape around what used to the the chapel. Every floor has at least two ramps. There are staircases that come out of nowhere and some hallways that come to dead ends. I get lost constantly. The former chapel is now Farqueson Hall, and it's where we eat our meals after we pick them up from the various production kitchens.
The first two and a half days were spend doing normal orientation things: registration, campus safety demos, a lecture on academic survival, team building exercises, etc. What was not normal for orientation was the food. Brekfast consisted of eggs benedict. Lunches were mushroom vol-au-vents, seared lamb shanks, creme brulee, NY strip steaks. Dinners had prosciutto and melon salads, apple crisps, braised short ribs. It's so much fun to be around people who appreciate food. The dialogues that I used to have about food in my head are now the things that people say out loud at meals. I don't know how I ate Le Moyne's Sodexho food for a year.
I'm starting to make a few friends. I've started to sit with a few of the same people at meals and in a few classes. Nothing much beyond that, though. I still spend most of my down time in my room. Like I said, though, my roommates are both great. Anthony is gay, too, so it's nice to know that my Lady Gaga music and A&F desktop screen aren't going to be judged. However, I still wish I had people to do and do things with. I'm not worried about it, though. I've been here three days. These things take time.
We had our first real classes today. This morning, I had Culinary Math. I haven't been in a math class since May 2006. I forgot what it's like. It is not hard by any means. Like, I'm pretty sure I did alot of this in 6th grade. Right now we are just doing things like converting units. Later on, though, we will learn how to calculate yields, cost out a menu, and mildly more challenging things. My math professor is pretty great. She knows her food and she is really entertaining. After that class, I had a few errands to run on campus (putting money on my card, getting things printed, etc.) I also had time to go back to my room to finish my math homework and take a nap before lunch. As far as dining here goes, we pretty much get to pick where we eat most of our meals. We can eat at one of six or seven production kitchens or at some of the public restaurants. Today, I decided to go to Cuisines of The Americas. I had cheddar and beer soup, a wedge salad with the best homemade Thousand Island I have ever tasted and goat cheese, and braised short ribs in a demi-glace with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots and broccoli rabe. After lunch, I had my second class: Product Knowledge. Today was spent mainly going over class procedures and objectives. The course will pretty much be a survey of all produce items (veggies, fruits, grains, herbs, etc.). We will learn about their flavors, applications, and how to handle and store them. I am really really really excited for this class. I love learning about food items and I'm really good at memorizing things, which is what the exams in this class will mainly consist of. To help us with this, students in Product Knowledge have access to the colleges store rooms. :-)
The CIA spends about 7 million a year on food. It arrives on semi every morning at seven. The rest of the day, the staff organize and invintory all the food. The area is huge! The walk-in refrigeratory for produce alone is the size of the bottom floor of my mom's house. There are separate rooms for dairy (including 27 types of cheese) and mushrooms. There is an entire walk-in for flours, a hallway for dry goods, and entire wings of the school for meats and fish. By the time I finsh the first nine weeks of school, I am expected to walk into any of those rooms and identify anything that is put in front of me. Tomorrow, I have a general Writing class and Introduction to Gastronomy. I'll let you know how that goes later.
For reference, my schedual until winter break will be:
M,W,F:
7:30am-8:50am: Culinary Math
1:45pm-3:45pm: Product Knowledge
T, TH
7:00am-8:20am: Writing
9:15am-11:15am: Intro to Gastronomy
Disclaimer: This is not an official website of The Culinary Institute of America. The views and information do not necessarily represent those of the school.
Anyway, I drove down to Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon and met my Mom at our hotel. We both took some time to rest after our drives before going out to dinner. Hyde Park itself is kinda gross. It's very small town and is just kinda stuck along Route 9 between Marist College and the Vanderbilt estate. I would say that its only redeming quality is the CIA and the FDR house and presidential library. So, Mom and I went to the town just north of Hyde Park called Rhinebeck. It is perhaps the cutest, most awesome town I have ever seen. For those of you from Indy, it's a lot like Broad Ripple, only bigger and better. For those of you from Syracuse, it's a lot like Armory Square, only much much bigger and better. Rhinebeck is filled with cute shops and tons of really good restaurants. Mom and I ended up at a place called Terrapin. It's in an converted church building. The cuisine was the food that I love, New American. It was very birsto-esque and seasonal. Delicious!
The next morning, Mom and I went to brunch and killed some time at the FDR estate and then I had to move in. I have never been so nervous about doing anything in my life. We unpacked the car and started moving things into my room. My roommate Robert was here and was very helpful. Anthony showed up not too long after. They have both been super friendly. Our room is kinda cramped and we are each on really different schedules, but we are making it work.
Stepping onto the CIA campus for the first time was incredibly sureal. I have been looking at pictures of the buildings, grounds, and kitchen for 4 years. To actually see them and have class in them is amazing. The main building, Roth Hall, is an old Jesuit monestary. It is deceivingly large. From the outside, it looks like a four story, rectangular building. In actuality, there are five or six floors that go in a "U" shape around what used to the the chapel. Every floor has at least two ramps. There are staircases that come out of nowhere and some hallways that come to dead ends. I get lost constantly. The former chapel is now Farqueson Hall, and it's where we eat our meals after we pick them up from the various production kitchens.
The first two and a half days were spend doing normal orientation things: registration, campus safety demos, a lecture on academic survival, team building exercises, etc. What was not normal for orientation was the food. Brekfast consisted of eggs benedict. Lunches were mushroom vol-au-vents, seared lamb shanks, creme brulee, NY strip steaks. Dinners had prosciutto and melon salads, apple crisps, braised short ribs. It's so much fun to be around people who appreciate food. The dialogues that I used to have about food in my head are now the things that people say out loud at meals. I don't know how I ate Le Moyne's Sodexho food for a year.
I'm starting to make a few friends. I've started to sit with a few of the same people at meals and in a few classes. Nothing much beyond that, though. I still spend most of my down time in my room. Like I said, though, my roommates are both great. Anthony is gay, too, so it's nice to know that my Lady Gaga music and A&F desktop screen aren't going to be judged. However, I still wish I had people to do and do things with. I'm not worried about it, though. I've been here three days. These things take time.
We had our first real classes today. This morning, I had Culinary Math. I haven't been in a math class since May 2006. I forgot what it's like. It is not hard by any means. Like, I'm pretty sure I did alot of this in 6th grade. Right now we are just doing things like converting units. Later on, though, we will learn how to calculate yields, cost out a menu, and mildly more challenging things. My math professor is pretty great. She knows her food and she is really entertaining. After that class, I had a few errands to run on campus (putting money on my card, getting things printed, etc.) I also had time to go back to my room to finish my math homework and take a nap before lunch. As far as dining here goes, we pretty much get to pick where we eat most of our meals. We can eat at one of six or seven production kitchens or at some of the public restaurants. Today, I decided to go to Cuisines of The Americas. I had cheddar and beer soup, a wedge salad with the best homemade Thousand Island I have ever tasted and goat cheese, and braised short ribs in a demi-glace with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots and broccoli rabe. After lunch, I had my second class: Product Knowledge. Today was spent mainly going over class procedures and objectives. The course will pretty much be a survey of all produce items (veggies, fruits, grains, herbs, etc.). We will learn about their flavors, applications, and how to handle and store them. I am really really really excited for this class. I love learning about food items and I'm really good at memorizing things, which is what the exams in this class will mainly consist of. To help us with this, students in Product Knowledge have access to the colleges store rooms. :-)
The CIA spends about 7 million a year on food. It arrives on semi every morning at seven. The rest of the day, the staff organize and invintory all the food. The area is huge! The walk-in refrigeratory for produce alone is the size of the bottom floor of my mom's house. There are separate rooms for dairy (including 27 types of cheese) and mushrooms. There is an entire walk-in for flours, a hallway for dry goods, and entire wings of the school for meats and fish. By the time I finsh the first nine weeks of school, I am expected to walk into any of those rooms and identify anything that is put in front of me. Tomorrow, I have a general Writing class and Introduction to Gastronomy. I'll let you know how that goes later.
For reference, my schedual until winter break will be:
M,W,F:
7:30am-8:50am: Culinary Math
1:45pm-3:45pm: Product Knowledge
T, TH
7:00am-8:20am: Writing
9:15am-11:15am: Intro to Gastronomy
Disclaimer: This is not an official website of The Culinary Institute of America. The views and information do not necessarily represent those of the school.
Friday, October 23, 2009
two weeks out...
Ok. I am two weeks away from starting at the CIA, and I don't think that I could be more nervous. I am worried about the classes and if I will be able to keep up. I know how much is involved and how much time I will have to spend studying and preparing. At Ivy Tech, I was the star of the class, but at the CIA, I think that everything will be evened out. Sure, I have a year as a line cook, but don't most people at the CIA? It's hard not being on top of the class anymore. I'm also worried about the social aspects/living arrangements. Even at Le Moyne, I had made friends at orientation over the summer. Since the CIA does nothing like that and I get the feeling that they don't really care about getting students acclimated, I am worried that meeting people will be hard. It does not help that my two room mates are current students and already involved in friends and such. Speaking of room mates, I am going to be crammed into a triple room that was designed to be a double...outstanding. I've spent the past three days shopping for and organizing my clothes. The school requires students to be in casual business attire or chef's whites whenever they are in class or in the academic buildings (this includes meals). I don't mind the dress code at all....I enjoy wearing more than just jeans and a hoodie. However, I did have a bit of shopping to do. There is nothing like a trip to Edinburgh Outlets. I am also worried that in such a small room and three guys there, I will not have enough room for all my clothes, uniforms, books, knives, DVD's, fridge, etc.
I've been reading as much as I can on the CIA's Facebook discussion board...trying to get tips and pieces of advice on what campus is like. My roommates have also been great in sharing information about the room. Despite all my worries, I really am excited to start. On the CIA's FB page, they have pictures of their events. At the summer's welcome back party, there were watermelon carving contests. I would reckon that most colleges would have a watermelon seed spitting contest. Their Oktoberfest centered around german food and pastries and handcrafted, microbrew beers instead of bad sausages and cheap beer. I can't wait to be surrounded by food. I really love the motivation and dedication of the students, too. On one of the discussion boards, a girl was complaining about the length of the classes, and she was ripped apart by they other students. They told her that if she can't handle a 6.5 hour class, then maybe the culinary arts were not for her. I am really reassured and comforted by knowing that my fellow students are going to be hardcore cooks and foodies. Even if I don't know anybody yet, I am sure that the Culinary Institute of America is filled with my kind of people.
Last week, when I was really beginning to freak out and get nervous, I was given a sign that the culinary world was for me. A few months ago, Leslie, my step mom, asked me to help cater a fundraiser that she and my dad were hosting for The Herron School of Art. I, of course, accepted. Cooking for parties of 50-60 people can be fun, and I knew it would be good to keep my skills up before school. The day before the party, I spend about six hours with Leslie baking a few types of cookies, working on the pasta salad, making a mousse, marinating chicken, etc. The day of the party, I head over to the house to finish everything. I make an aioli platter, bake the chicken, doing mise en place for pizzas. I thought that I would have a little more time than I ended up having before the guests arrive. I felt the same thrill and rush of adrenaline that I used to get at the resaurant right before a busy service. I was focused, yet moving around the kitchen quickly to get everything in place. I was trying to keep track of 3 item in two different oven, keep the garde manger platters stocked, replenish the dessert tables, and make nice conversation with rich old ladies who wanted to talk about food with me. It goes from 5:30 to 9:30 and you don't even realize it. You hate it while it's happening. You wish you could be moving faster and that more food was getting done. You absolutely wish the night would end. Then, once it does, you realize what you just did. I had just fed 50-some people and they loved it. The Chicken Marbella was a hit and every single person who tried it complimented my Amaretto Mousse. I made good food and I made the fundraiser staff and attendees happy.
Even if my room is cramped and I don't know many people, I am going to be at the Culinary Institute of America. I am going to be at the best culinary school in the country learning how to make delicious food and how to be a culinary professional. So screw the long hours, the excessive homework, and the cold weather...I am going to be learning about food and cooking. And at the end of the night, it's about making me and my diners happy.
I think I'm going to be OK
I've been reading as much as I can on the CIA's Facebook discussion board...trying to get tips and pieces of advice on what campus is like. My roommates have also been great in sharing information about the room. Despite all my worries, I really am excited to start. On the CIA's FB page, they have pictures of their events. At the summer's welcome back party, there were watermelon carving contests. I would reckon that most colleges would have a watermelon seed spitting contest. Their Oktoberfest centered around german food and pastries and handcrafted, microbrew beers instead of bad sausages and cheap beer. I can't wait to be surrounded by food. I really love the motivation and dedication of the students, too. On one of the discussion boards, a girl was complaining about the length of the classes, and she was ripped apart by they other students. They told her that if she can't handle a 6.5 hour class, then maybe the culinary arts were not for her. I am really reassured and comforted by knowing that my fellow students are going to be hardcore cooks and foodies. Even if I don't know anybody yet, I am sure that the Culinary Institute of America is filled with my kind of people.
Last week, when I was really beginning to freak out and get nervous, I was given a sign that the culinary world was for me. A few months ago, Leslie, my step mom, asked me to help cater a fundraiser that she and my dad were hosting for The Herron School of Art. I, of course, accepted. Cooking for parties of 50-60 people can be fun, and I knew it would be good to keep my skills up before school. The day before the party, I spend about six hours with Leslie baking a few types of cookies, working on the pasta salad, making a mousse, marinating chicken, etc. The day of the party, I head over to the house to finish everything. I make an aioli platter, bake the chicken, doing mise en place for pizzas. I thought that I would have a little more time than I ended up having before the guests arrive. I felt the same thrill and rush of adrenaline that I used to get at the resaurant right before a busy service. I was focused, yet moving around the kitchen quickly to get everything in place. I was trying to keep track of 3 item in two different oven, keep the garde manger platters stocked, replenish the dessert tables, and make nice conversation with rich old ladies who wanted to talk about food with me. It goes from 5:30 to 9:30 and you don't even realize it. You hate it while it's happening. You wish you could be moving faster and that more food was getting done. You absolutely wish the night would end. Then, once it does, you realize what you just did. I had just fed 50-some people and they loved it. The Chicken Marbella was a hit and every single person who tried it complimented my Amaretto Mousse. I made good food and I made the fundraiser staff and attendees happy.
Even if my room is cramped and I don't know many people, I am going to be at the Culinary Institute of America. I am going to be at the best culinary school in the country learning how to make delicious food and how to be a culinary professional. So screw the long hours, the excessive homework, and the cold weather...I am going to be learning about food and cooking. And at the end of the night, it's about making me and my diners happy.
I think I'm going to be OK
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Last Two Years, Part II
So now we are in the summer of 2008. The club was busier than I had ever seen it. Chef Michael was told by the general manager that there was enough money in the budget to hire another person in our kitchen. When I found this out, clearly I applied for the position and vocalized my desire to be a paid member of the staff to Michael. I had been working at the club for over eight months. I spent more time in the kitchen than any of the paid staff. I didn’t mind. I know that I had to pay my dues and work my way up. That’s what apprenticeships are for: to learn and to be abused. I get it. But I had been completely and utterly financially dependent upon my dad for the entire time I worked there. He had to pay for everything, as I had no income. I really wanted the paying job. Now, other people had applied for the position as well. However, I know that Michael had more than one conversation with the manager trying to get me hired. After an interview process, did the general manager decide to hire me, a person who was already fully trained and excelling at the job? No. They decided to hire Tho, a thirty-something year-old man who came from white collar business jobs, who had never worked in a professional kitchen and needed to be trained from scratch. Clearly, I’m all for taking a chance on a neophyte; It’s what Michael did for me. But, seriously? They had somebody more than qualified right in front of their faces, and they turned me down because I was already there, working for free. Hiring him gave them more help in the kitchen but without added cost. This is when I learned my second big lesson about restaurants: They will do whatever they can to turn a profit, even if it means screwing over a dedicated employee.
Here’s the kicker, though. When Tho started, they didn’t give him to Abbey, Allison, Erick, or Michael to train. No No. They gave him to me to train. I couldn’t have been more insulted. The job that I deserved was given to a man who had never even made a vinaigrette was given to me to train. It was after a few days of him asking what a roma tomato is, disappearing during service, and taking rather long bathroom breaks when it was time to clean at the end of the night that I decided it was time to leave The Hawthorns. I talked with Michael at length about the experience and he agreed with me. It was insulting to me and the abilities that I had developed. Basically, I had been screwed over and Michael thought so, too. We agreed that I would finish out the next two weeks and then I would move on.
So, After leaving Hawthorns at the end of July 2008, I needed a job. Now, of course it would have made sense to look for a job in a restaurant, but as my dad put it, “what’s the big hurry?”. I was going to be working on restaurants for the rest of my life, so why not take a job that’s easy and where I can make some quick money. So, I decided to go back to both The Children’s Museum and The Indianapolis Rowing Center. I taught kids about dinosaurs and coached rowers for the next few months. Perhaps it was not the wisest thing that I had ever done. They are both jobs that I love and am so comfortable in. I could very much see myself as a high school teacher and coach for the rest of my life. I got nervous. What if I really didn’t want to cook? What if I was meant to be a teacher? I once again had a heart-to-heart with my parents and we decided that I would try out The Culinary School at Ivy Tech Community College to see if it was right for me.
I enrolled for the spring semester and took a few introductory classes: Basic Food Theory and Skills, Nutrition, Sanitation and First Aid, and Introduction to Baking. I was a little worried at first. If you are from Indy, you know that Ivy Tech does not exactly have the best reputation. I, however, was pleasantly surprised. I loved my instructors. They were all very accomplished chefs and had some really cool experiences to share with their students. Basic Food Theory and Skills was kind of a joke. It was all the stuff that I had learned in the first few weeks at Hawthorns. We learned the 12 basic knife cuts, how to make the mother sauces, how to deconstruct a chicken, how to make stock…the basics. I would always get my work done way ahead of the rest of the class and then get stuck doing everybody’s dishes while I waited for them to finish. Nutrition was surprisingly fascinating. The instructor that I had was so incredibly knowledgeable about both professional cooking and nutrition. We learned all about specific foods and the nutrients they posses. The best part of the class was getting to modify recipes to make them more nutritious. It was so much fun getting to experiment with the ingredients in order to keep taste and flavor, but decrease fat and add nutrients. At the end of the semester, we took an exam and I am now certified in Nutrition from the National Restaurant Association… kind of a big deal. Sanitation was also kind of a cool class. It seems twisted, but I really enjoyed learning about all the diseases and pathogens that can be transferred through improperly prepared or cooked food. By far, my favorite class that semester was Introduction to Baking. Before entering the class I had a huge fear of yeast. Don’t laugh… I know… but honestly, that stuff is intimidating. You have to treat it just right or you can kill it or over grow it. I learned so much in that class every week. It was basically a survey of all things baking. Here is just a fraction of the things we made in that class: biscuits, scones, muffins, coffee cake, dinner rolls, Pullman loaves, wheat bread, sourdough bread, baguettes, focacia, brioche, challah, pain de campagne, chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread, blueberry pie, apple pie, chess pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, lemon cream pie, chocolate cream pie, crème brulee, pots de crème, saboynee, puff pasty, Danish, basque cake, chiffon cake, genoise cake, American buttercream, swiss buttercream, and croissants. I not only got over my fear of yeast, I actually really enjoy working with bread dough now.
While taking these classes and working at the museum, I decided that culinary school was indeed the right choice for me and I had not wasted the past two years of my life. In February, I sent in my final application to the CIA. During finals week at Ivy Tech in the middle of May, I got my acceptance letter. I had been accepted to the Bachelors of Culinary Arts and Management program at the Hyde Park, NY campus of The Culinary Institute of America. A few weeks later, I found out that I would be starting on November 9th. So many of my friends and family want to know what culinary school is like and what kinds of things I will be doing, I decided the best way was to crate a blog that you guys could check at your leisure. So please, check back often, especially starting in November when I plan on updating about every other day.
That pretty much catches us up to right now. I have kept working at the museum four days a week. I’m trying to make as much pocket money as I can because I don’t want to have to ask my parents to pay my incidentals while they already are paying my $30,000 tuition (thanks, Dad!). I also won’t have the opportunity to work over summers since the CIA is year round. I predict that I should graduate sometime in the early Fall of 2011. I would love to hear from you all about how your lives are going and what you have been up to. Feel free to send me an e-mail at bgchandler2@gmail.com or hit me up on Facebook.
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Last Two Years, Part I
So, it’s no secret that I am not exactly the best at keeping in contact with people. I am very sorry. Because of this fact, I bet many of you are wondering what I have been up to for the past two years. Well, let’s start in September 2007…
In September 2007 I started looking for an apprenticeship in a kitchen. I had some trouble finding something appropriate, so I started coaching at the Indianapolis Rowing Center. It was wonderful being back at the boathouse and being able to pass along my passion and knowledge to the Novice Girls. I was there five evenings a week, and on the weekends I traveled with the team to regattas. I filled my days by sending out letters and cold calling restaurants. I was willing to work whenever they needed me and work for free, so I thought it would be easy. Turns out, I was wrong. This is when I learned my first culinary lesson: use the connections that you have. A friend of my step-dad’s, Steve Peters, is a member at a country club just north of Indianapolis named The Hawthorns. The Executive Chef at The Hawthorns was Chef Michael Powell who is also a graduate of the CIA. Steve told me about Chef Michael and told him that I would be calling.
At the end of the rowing season, the last week of October, I called Chef Michael. Thankfully, he sounded interested and willing to take on an apprentice. Later that week, I went into The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club for a face-to-face meeting and a day of trailing the chef. I spent my first afternoon in a professional kitchen watching Chef Michael and Sous Chef Erick Freeman prepare a ten course tasting menu for a Wine and Food Society dinner the next day. Then the chef asked me to help him. I was so nervous and so excited all at the same time. I will never forget, the very first thing I did in a kitchen was shred ten pounds of sweet potato on a box grater. I also rubbed ribs with a spice mix, trussed racks of lamb, and did mise en place for crème anglaise. At the end of the evening, I talked to Michael and was invited back the next night. That next evening, I was in complete and total amazement. I watched all the food that was prepped the day before become a ten course meal for twenty people. I was also given the honor of tasting all the courses. I tasted things like pumpkin and sweet potato dumplings in beef consume, lamb lollipops in a cherry and vinegar reductions, and frangipan pastries with an oatmeal anglaise sauce. I was given the task of wiping down the rims of plates before they were taken out. I was honored that I, as a 19 year old boy with zero kitchen experience, was even allowed to touch the finished plates. This night, the kitchen that this was being prepared in was also busy with Friday night dinner service in the bar and restaurants that the kitchen serves. I was in awe. I watched the three line cooks, who later became some of my best friends, pound out about one hundred covers. They moved so qucickly and with so much purpose. There were five cooks in the kitchen, one dishwasher, three club managers, three bussers, four banquet servers, three restaurant serves, and five bar serves, and me. The kitchen was hot with the heat from seven convection ovens, 40-some burners, two salamanders, two gas deep-fryers, one grill, three warming ovens, four hot food windows, and two broilers. It was chaotic and full of loud voices. Tensions were high and the pressure was on. I left that night exhausted from just watching and hotter that I had ever been. I knew this life was for me.
I talked to the chef the next week and he and I were both interested in starting an apprenticeship. I was to shop up the next Wednesday and get everything sorted out. At first, there was lots of confusion because the HR woman was nervous about taking on unpaid staff. I had to write and sign several statements about not seeking payment and take a drug test before I could start in the kitchen. When that was all done, I officially began my culinary education. On that Friday afternoon, I was given a locker and a set of chef’s jackets. I went up to the kitchen and was assigned a knife and a prep area. I got a brief introduction on how to set up a station and basic sanitation form sous Chef Erick. I then made 200 mini cheeseburger sliders for a kids buffet later that night. I was assigned to the Head Line Cook in the main kitchen, Abbey Houston. She answered the millions of questions I had about the sliders and then I spent most of service watching her cook. I learned the basics of how to set up a grill, oil it up, and keep track of what piece of meat has been on the grill for how long. You may think that the cross-hatches are there for visual appeal. You are wrong. They are there to help the Grill Cook. They next day I was assigned to help and learn from Allison Campbell, the Garde Manger Cook in the main kitchen. It was in this position that I would stay for the next five months.
Every day when I came into the kitchen, I would stop by the Chef’s office and look at the BEO’s (Banquet and Events Orders) for the day and upcoming days. Then I would meet with Allsion and talk about what we needed to accomplish that day. The main kitchen, where we worked, was responsible for three main tasks. We did all of the work for the banquets, parties, and events that the country club hosted. We also served the fine dining restaurant at the club, The Overlook. Finally, we served the bar at the club, The Players Lounge, which also had a full menu. The total number of cooks for this kitchen: three (four, if you include me). Granted, we sometimes received help from Michael and Erick, but not often. They were kept busy with bureaucratic issues and paperwork. Basically, the four of us were damn busy all the time. While working with Allison, I learned more than I could possibly remember every day. I learned how to do the mise en place for our station, which included assorted knife cuts on over 40 different types of produce, how to make 10 different salad dressings, 13 sauces, the fabrication of our meats and seafoods, as well as 4 new and different desserts and 2 soups every week. She and I, as the Garde Manger Station, were responsible for every soup, salad, sandwich, appetizer, and dessert that the kitchen sent out to the two restaurants and all the banquets. I was over whelmed. After I started getting the hang of the mise en place (or all of our prep work), Allison started showing me how she work the line. “Working the line” is what a cook does when they are cooking the food that is being ordered in a restaurant. I learned how to plate all of our salads, cook all of our appetizers, serve the soups, make the sandwiches, make set-ups for burgers, plate our deserts, manage my time, be efficient, and most importantly work with the other cooks on the line to time our tickets properly.
I went home every night at around 11 or midnight just bursting with excitement. I made notes of what I had learned that day and wrote down any recipes that were interesting to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about food. All my family heard about was the food I made the night before, or how many carrots I had julienned for a banquet, or how Chef Michael showed me how to make a perfect braised short rib. I was absolutely in love with the life of a cook. I was surrounded by my passion, food. I was working from noon-11pm, Wednesday through Sunday. I went home cut, burned, bandaged, and exhausted. Sweat covered my face and grease covered my pants and shoes, but I loved it. I was sure that I had made the right decision.
After a busy December, filled with holiday parties and events and packed nights in the Overlook and Players’ Lounge and more work than I have done in my entire life, the club shut down for the month of January. I enjoyed some time off and was able to move into my dad’s house. The move shaved more than an hour of my daily commute. Early in December, our sauté cook, Francisco, quit and got a job elsewhere. This had left a hole in our kitchen that Erick had helped to fill in until we came back in February. Well, the chefs had a surprise for me and Allison when we returned. Allison was promoted to Grill Cook. Abbey was promoted from grill to Sauté Cook, and I was given the Garde Manger station all by myself. Chef Michael himself told me that he had faith in me and knew that I could handle it. I have never been so proud of myself in my entire life. I couldn’t wait to tell my parents and friends. I was now a cook….a real cook. Yes, I was still an unpaid apprentice, but I was no longer just an assistant. I had my own station. I alone was responsible for my produce orders, making sure I was prepped for service, filling BEO’s and keeping up with dinner service every night.
Things stayed like this for the next few months. Abbey, Allison, and I would pound out freakish amounts of delicious food every day. I continued to learn. I got faster all the time. When I first started on my station in November, it would take about 6 hours to do all my knife work on produce. By April, I could do it in about 2.5 hours. I could grind though all my tickets during service. I gained a muscle memory of where each and every ingredient for each and every item was. I never had to look; I just knew. I fell in love with the rush that comes when you are ten tickets deep and new item keep printing, you have seven sauté pans going, three baskets in the fryer, and two items finishing in the oven, yet you are still able to keep a clear mind and turn out perfect plates. I knew I had made the right decision and started my life as a cook.
As summer was approaching, the club started to get busier. It is here that my story takes a bit of a turn and gets confusing and a bit upsetting. This post is long enough, so I will leave you with this for now. I will write and upload part II tomorrow.
In September 2007 I started looking for an apprenticeship in a kitchen. I had some trouble finding something appropriate, so I started coaching at the Indianapolis Rowing Center. It was wonderful being back at the boathouse and being able to pass along my passion and knowledge to the Novice Girls. I was there five evenings a week, and on the weekends I traveled with the team to regattas. I filled my days by sending out letters and cold calling restaurants. I was willing to work whenever they needed me and work for free, so I thought it would be easy. Turns out, I was wrong. This is when I learned my first culinary lesson: use the connections that you have. A friend of my step-dad’s, Steve Peters, is a member at a country club just north of Indianapolis named The Hawthorns. The Executive Chef at The Hawthorns was Chef Michael Powell who is also a graduate of the CIA. Steve told me about Chef Michael and told him that I would be calling.
At the end of the rowing season, the last week of October, I called Chef Michael. Thankfully, he sounded interested and willing to take on an apprentice. Later that week, I went into The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club for a face-to-face meeting and a day of trailing the chef. I spent my first afternoon in a professional kitchen watching Chef Michael and Sous Chef Erick Freeman prepare a ten course tasting menu for a Wine and Food Society dinner the next day. Then the chef asked me to help him. I was so nervous and so excited all at the same time. I will never forget, the very first thing I did in a kitchen was shred ten pounds of sweet potato on a box grater. I also rubbed ribs with a spice mix, trussed racks of lamb, and did mise en place for crème anglaise. At the end of the evening, I talked to Michael and was invited back the next night. That next evening, I was in complete and total amazement. I watched all the food that was prepped the day before become a ten course meal for twenty people. I was also given the honor of tasting all the courses. I tasted things like pumpkin and sweet potato dumplings in beef consume, lamb lollipops in a cherry and vinegar reductions, and frangipan pastries with an oatmeal anglaise sauce. I was given the task of wiping down the rims of plates before they were taken out. I was honored that I, as a 19 year old boy with zero kitchen experience, was even allowed to touch the finished plates. This night, the kitchen that this was being prepared in was also busy with Friday night dinner service in the bar and restaurants that the kitchen serves. I was in awe. I watched the three line cooks, who later became some of my best friends, pound out about one hundred covers. They moved so qucickly and with so much purpose. There were five cooks in the kitchen, one dishwasher, three club managers, three bussers, four banquet servers, three restaurant serves, and five bar serves, and me. The kitchen was hot with the heat from seven convection ovens, 40-some burners, two salamanders, two gas deep-fryers, one grill, three warming ovens, four hot food windows, and two broilers. It was chaotic and full of loud voices. Tensions were high and the pressure was on. I left that night exhausted from just watching and hotter that I had ever been. I knew this life was for me.
I talked to the chef the next week and he and I were both interested in starting an apprenticeship. I was to shop up the next Wednesday and get everything sorted out. At first, there was lots of confusion because the HR woman was nervous about taking on unpaid staff. I had to write and sign several statements about not seeking payment and take a drug test before I could start in the kitchen. When that was all done, I officially began my culinary education. On that Friday afternoon, I was given a locker and a set of chef’s jackets. I went up to the kitchen and was assigned a knife and a prep area. I got a brief introduction on how to set up a station and basic sanitation form sous Chef Erick. I then made 200 mini cheeseburger sliders for a kids buffet later that night. I was assigned to the Head Line Cook in the main kitchen, Abbey Houston. She answered the millions of questions I had about the sliders and then I spent most of service watching her cook. I learned the basics of how to set up a grill, oil it up, and keep track of what piece of meat has been on the grill for how long. You may think that the cross-hatches are there for visual appeal. You are wrong. They are there to help the Grill Cook. They next day I was assigned to help and learn from Allison Campbell, the Garde Manger Cook in the main kitchen. It was in this position that I would stay for the next five months.
Every day when I came into the kitchen, I would stop by the Chef’s office and look at the BEO’s (Banquet and Events Orders) for the day and upcoming days. Then I would meet with Allsion and talk about what we needed to accomplish that day. The main kitchen, where we worked, was responsible for three main tasks. We did all of the work for the banquets, parties, and events that the country club hosted. We also served the fine dining restaurant at the club, The Overlook. Finally, we served the bar at the club, The Players Lounge, which also had a full menu. The total number of cooks for this kitchen: three (four, if you include me). Granted, we sometimes received help from Michael and Erick, but not often. They were kept busy with bureaucratic issues and paperwork. Basically, the four of us were damn busy all the time. While working with Allison, I learned more than I could possibly remember every day. I learned how to do the mise en place for our station, which included assorted knife cuts on over 40 different types of produce, how to make 10 different salad dressings, 13 sauces, the fabrication of our meats and seafoods, as well as 4 new and different desserts and 2 soups every week. She and I, as the Garde Manger Station, were responsible for every soup, salad, sandwich, appetizer, and dessert that the kitchen sent out to the two restaurants and all the banquets. I was over whelmed. After I started getting the hang of the mise en place (or all of our prep work), Allison started showing me how she work the line. “Working the line” is what a cook does when they are cooking the food that is being ordered in a restaurant. I learned how to plate all of our salads, cook all of our appetizers, serve the soups, make the sandwiches, make set-ups for burgers, plate our deserts, manage my time, be efficient, and most importantly work with the other cooks on the line to time our tickets properly.
I went home every night at around 11 or midnight just bursting with excitement. I made notes of what I had learned that day and wrote down any recipes that were interesting to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about food. All my family heard about was the food I made the night before, or how many carrots I had julienned for a banquet, or how Chef Michael showed me how to make a perfect braised short rib. I was absolutely in love with the life of a cook. I was surrounded by my passion, food. I was working from noon-11pm, Wednesday through Sunday. I went home cut, burned, bandaged, and exhausted. Sweat covered my face and grease covered my pants and shoes, but I loved it. I was sure that I had made the right decision.
After a busy December, filled with holiday parties and events and packed nights in the Overlook and Players’ Lounge and more work than I have done in my entire life, the club shut down for the month of January. I enjoyed some time off and was able to move into my dad’s house. The move shaved more than an hour of my daily commute. Early in December, our sauté cook, Francisco, quit and got a job elsewhere. This had left a hole in our kitchen that Erick had helped to fill in until we came back in February. Well, the chefs had a surprise for me and Allison when we returned. Allison was promoted to Grill Cook. Abbey was promoted from grill to Sauté Cook, and I was given the Garde Manger station all by myself. Chef Michael himself told me that he had faith in me and knew that I could handle it. I have never been so proud of myself in my entire life. I couldn’t wait to tell my parents and friends. I was now a cook….a real cook. Yes, I was still an unpaid apprentice, but I was no longer just an assistant. I had my own station. I alone was responsible for my produce orders, making sure I was prepped for service, filling BEO’s and keeping up with dinner service every night.
Things stayed like this for the next few months. Abbey, Allison, and I would pound out freakish amounts of delicious food every day. I continued to learn. I got faster all the time. When I first started on my station in November, it would take about 6 hours to do all my knife work on produce. By April, I could do it in about 2.5 hours. I could grind though all my tickets during service. I gained a muscle memory of where each and every ingredient for each and every item was. I never had to look; I just knew. I fell in love with the rush that comes when you are ten tickets deep and new item keep printing, you have seven sauté pans going, three baskets in the fryer, and two items finishing in the oven, yet you are still able to keep a clear mind and turn out perfect plates. I knew I had made the right decision and started my life as a cook.
As summer was approaching, the club started to get busier. It is here that my story takes a bit of a turn and gets confusing and a bit upsetting. This post is long enough, so I will leave you with this for now. I will write and upload part II tomorrow.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The big decision
Below is a copy of a letter that I sent out to all of my friends from Le Moyne College when I decided to leave and try to go to the CIA. It kind of explains why I made the decision I did and makes a few apologies to friends. To date, leaving those people is the hardest thing I have had to do.
Dear Loved Ones,
Dear Loved Ones,
As many of you know, I have been interested in going to culinary school since I was a junior at Brebeuf Jesuit. As many of you may also know, I have been planning on going to culinary school as soon as I graduated from Le Moyne. Well, those plans have changed a little. I can no longer logically put off my burning passion for the culinary arts. This fall (the fall of 2007) I will start my culinary education. Unfortunately, this means that I will not be returning to Le Moyne College. Starting at the end of August, I will begin my quest to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the country’s most prestigious, longest running, and rigorous culinary education institution.
I will begin by finding a job in a kitchen. In order to enroll at the CIA, I must first have six months of experience in a working live-prep kitchen. During these six months I will also be taking classes at Ivy Tech State College in the Hospitality Management division. These introductory classes will give me the basics necessary for both the kitchen job and enrollment at the CIA. It’s going to be a hard year, but I know that it will all pay off when I start at the CIA in the Fall of 2008. I will then attend the CIA for another four years to receive a Bachelors of Professional Studies in the Culinary Arts. This degree from the CIA is recognized all over the world as proof of the best cooking education in North America.
Let me tell you all how hard it has been to make this decision. I have been interested in the CIA for years, but thinking about this decision since the end of May. Le Moyne is my home. It is just as much a part of me as Indianapolis. I have learned more about life and grown more in my one year on The Heights than I have in all of my 19 years of life. I have never had to make a decision harder than this. The thought of leaving all of the wonderful people I know….my best friends in the world….is incredibly hard. I know I will miss all of you like crazy. It’s not that I am no longer interested in Peace and Global Studies or French, it’s just that I need to follow my passion. All of you who are close to me know that I feel like people who have jobs they don’t enjoy or refuse to takes risks to be happy are not truly living. I need to cook. It’s in my blood. I live, eat, breath, and dream about food. I need to follow this passion.
I would also like to apologize. I am so sorry to the people I am leaving at LMC. I love all of you so much and I know my life this year will be so different without all of you. I am especially sorry to the housemates of Townhouse 302, especially Bill. I know this leave all of you in a precarious situation. I hope they do not assign you a new housemate. You guys are awesome, though. I know you will figure it out. A very big “I’m sorry” goes out to Becky, Ben, James, Jenn, and Andrew. You are the five people who have touched me the most this past year. The thought of not spending the next few years with you is making me cry as I write. Please, all of you, try to understand that this is really what I want and what I need to do for myself. I will not loose contact with you and I plan on making as many trips to Syracuse as I can. The CIA is just an hour from NYC and 3.5 hours from Syracuse.
I would like to talk to you all about this. Please feel free to call me. In fact, I encourage all my LMC friends to let me know when you read this, as it affects all of you the most. So Dolphins, put a comment here or write on my wall or send a message to let me know that you have read this. This is going to be very hard for me, so I thank you in advance for your support as I transition.
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