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


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