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 1/8^th 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.