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…