Day 1: Overwheleming

Day 1

The first day of culinary labs was in a word: overwhelming. The whole day was just so intense, so many things happening at once. My first class was New World Cuisine, which basically covers the foods brought by europeans to the Americas. Somehow that translates into frying basically everything in class. (I'm not even kidding, every other thing we make is fried.)

A few facts about the culinary labs: So each lab is a 9 day segment and five 9 day segments make up a trimester. There are two options for labs: you can choose morning labs from 7am to 1pm or PM labs from 1pm to 8pm. I chose morning labs.

I was so overwhelming the night before my first lab because, my chef posted the syllabus and recipes at 10pm when we have class in the morning. I went to the library to print everything out, only to find out that the library is closed. This sends me into a completely irrational panic attack. I finally print some of the papers and finish ironing my uniform.

I even ironed the one of the dumbest things I've ever seen into my uniform: The Chef's T. I don't know about you but I have never heard of this until I came here. I think it's stupid because it's a crease and it's so random. One kid I talked to had a theory on how it came about. He said that some kid didn't know to iron his uniform and came to class with the T. Then when the chef saw him and said "I want everyone to iron their uniform like that." Thus the Chef's T was born. I believe that.

See, it looks so stupid.

All sparkly and new, ready for my first day of labs. I feel like I had that young chef glow in this picture.

                          Here was the line to get knife kits. I was beyond excited to get mine!

                                            The Chef giving a demo on how to truss meat.

Knife Cuts. So many French words! 

Chef showing uushow to carve meat. 

Roast pork and beef resting. My classmates made this. 

My group made these beef kebobs. The marinade was pretty wonderful: orange zest, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and minced fresh garlic and parsley. Delicious! 

Getting rreadyfor family meal.

My classmates at work.

A little trick my chef showed the class. Take dozens of garlic cloves (don't bother peeling them) and cover them with olive oil. Then sprinkle a generous amount of salt on them. Cook the garlic and oil on low heat, until the garlic cloves are soft and pop out of their peels. He calls this easy roasted garlic.

Once the oil is cool enough to touch. Pop the garlic cloves out of their peels and strain the oil. What you will have iisthe most heavenly garlic butter and garlic oil. We tossed some fried potatoes in the mashed garlic cloves and it was AMAZING!

Grilled VVegetables

Roasted New Potatoes 

Fried Fish 

Fried Chicken 

Grilled Pork Chops and a Pork Loin. 

All the food laid out for family meal.

The finished beef kebobs my group made. 

My plate. It's like Thanksgiving everyday! 

Family Meal. One of my favorite parts. I love sitting down with everyone and tasting what everyone made. We are like a little family. It's funny how different we are all different but one thing unites us: our love of culinary. 

Culinary School In Pictures

I can't believe the first trimester of school is already over. Which means that the school year is a third of the way over. College is going by so quickly and I don't want to waste a single day. Next term I will finally have cooking labs, which I AM SO EXCITED about. So be prepared for tons of pictures from class.  Here are a collection of pics that show the first few months of school.

I had two slices of this deliciousness. I couldn't even tell you what flavor it is because I was inhaling it.  I can tell you that it has a crunchy layer of streusel on top and what I think was cinnamon buttercream.

This was staring me in the face at work and of course it was still warm.

Candied Ham, Maple Glazed Squash, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Not bad at all.

I nice healthy and colorful dinner during Hurricane Sandy. 

Making candy apples with the Pastry Club at school. You see that big bowl of chocolate? Yea, my face wanted that.

Some seriously amazing home fries. 

Grilled Mustard and Fennel Pork, Brown Rice, and Roasted Veggies. I had seconds and thirds and fourths. No really, I did.

The finished apples. 

Candies for decorating the apples. 

A beautiful Fall day at school. 

An awesome chocolate chip cookie that a classmate made. 

A Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich that totally hit the spot. 

First time working in a real kitchen. 

So happy to be here. I wonder what the next term will bring. 

Culinary School

For those of you that don't know, I'm in CULINARY SCHOOL. I just started this month and it's only been 2 weeks but it feels longer. So much has happened. There's so much to tell.......

First off, I go to Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island.
Unfortunately, I'm taking all academic classes this term, so I won't be cooking until late November. Of course you guys will be the first to know exactly when that is.

                            So lets start off with how gorgeous this place is. I mean seriously?

REALLY?

                                                        Even the trees are beautiful!

               Uniforms aren't my thing but it sure is beautiful to see a sea of white chef's uniforms.
                                             You know I love being in my chef's whites!

All the culinary students going to the Culinary Welcome!

Grateful is really the only way I can describe it all. I feel so grateful to be here. This was my dream school and I'm actually here, studying what I LOVE. It wasn't easy getting to this point, so I'm just glad to be here. I'm here to work hard and learn how to be the best at what I love. Not everyone who is passionate about food gets to go to culinary school. 

This is a loaf of warm, fresh, multigrain bread I got from the pastry students, who were giving them away. Pastry student: "Do you want a loaf of bread, we just made in class?" Me: "Why yes I do!" The bread was still warm!

 Reason number 1,245 why I love culinary school, it's like living in a bakery. I forgot to mention that I inhaled this bread in 2 days. Yea, it was just alright.

How have I been eating? 

Well, I must admit that the amount of "clean" or healthy foods here is limited but I make it work. 

Here's the breakfast that I've become obsessed with over the course of 2 weeks. 

 kashi go lean crunch cereal, raisins, and plain yogurt. 

I'm pretty much addicted to this. It's the closest thing I can get to the Greek yogurt and quinoa parfaits I make at home. Plus I'm become obsessed with raisins from eating this everyday. In fact, I just bought a box of raisins, that I eat plain. Yea I'm ninety years old. 

Lunch is usually a salad with seasoned chicken breast which I LOVE! 

Got this from one of the many on-campus restaurants run by students. 

Salads aren't my favorite meal to eat but I must admit I feel like a million bucks after eating one. 

Overall the food is delicious and my diet is the cleanest it's ever been. I eat tons of salad everyday and lots of fresh veggies and fruits. I haven't eaten a baked good in like 3 weeks. I KNOW! I'm totally due for one soon. Plus, I'm still HIITing the gym EVERY SINGLE DAY! Freshman 15 what?

Stay Tuned for the next culinary school post!