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| Angels Among Us No, I'm not talking about some cheesy Christmas song. The other night I couldn't sleep, and I found my mind wandering. Soon enough I began thinking about my college days, particularly about the people I met when I was there. One incident stood out from all the rest. When I was in college I sang in the church choir and met a lot of people, many not college students, through it. One person had a huge impact on my college life while I was there, and it was just by reaching out to me. Dr. Madonia was like a cool, fun-loving uncle that liked to goof off but was still concerned about others' well-being. I probably coud've told him anything, and even though I didn't know him very well, I felt very close to him. It was the beginning of the 2006 spring semester. I was going through a pretty rough time and was very depressed. One Sunday after mass Dr. Madonia stopped me and gave me a few words of encouragement. His exact words escape me now, but the gesture still has the same effect. He didn't pry at all about my situation or ask me what was wrong. He just told me that I could, and would, get past whatever obstacle I was trying to pass. He even gave me his number at his office and his house, and he and his wife even opened their house to me which was not too far from campus. It's been a long time since I thought about that day, and every time I do it brings tears to my eyes to think of how blessed I am. It just amazes me to realize how much people can touch our lives by the simplest of acts. | | |
| The following are some random memories and thoughts from the last three terms of mu culinary classes. It was really late when I wrote them so they're very rambly. I read through and realized how highly I thought of myself. Definitely not the best picture of modesty. And I seemed to gossip a lot about people in my class. Anyway, I will also try to upload some pictures from class too.
Term 2: CUL 1350 Intermediate Food Production Skills
It was the start of our second term, and we had already lost two people. Our class was much smaller now, and it became even more clear as the term progressed that some people were better than others and that the girls were tired of having to deal with the guys. During this term tensions began to run high, and a lot of us were getting annoyed with each other.
Our chef instructor was Chef Reidy. He seemed like a hard ass at first, but we got more comfortable around him and loosened up a bit. After a while it was obvious that he couldn’t stand the guys in our class either. He also seemed the most, let’s say, emotional. He had been going through a divorce during this term, and it seemed that he wasn’t very happy with his life.
There really aren’t too many things that I remember from this term. We made some really good food this term, although most of the recipes escape me. One thing I do remember is our final practical. One of the dishes was chicken paillard with potato croquettes. This dish had been giving a lot of people problems. My croquettes, apparently, were perfect. The chef proctor told me that if my chicken was cooked right and not dry then my dish would be perfect. Well, he took a bite of the chicken and then gave me a high five. I thought it was very funny.
The only other thing that was really memorable from this term was the last day, clean up day. Chef Reidy and Luis got into an argument which resulted in them yelling and cursing each other. It started by Chef Reidy telling Luis that he wasn’t getting any bonus points because he had left class early too many times without permission. Well, Luis was not so happy about it and said that it was “f***ed up”. The argument escalated to Chef Reidy telling Luis that he wasn’t going to make it in the business because he was a “whiny little b**ch”. Luis responded by flipping Chef Reidy off and telling him “f*** you”. I thought it was so funny.
Term 3: PBC 1550 Fundamental Baking and Pastry
This term (and the next) proved to be a very challenging and exciting term for me. To start, we had several new people join our class this term, which was a good thing because the seven of us were beginning to get annoyed with each other and throwing some new people into the mix helped out with that a lot. We added Camille, Sheri, Lawanda, Leslie, David, and Gene. Having new people was nice, but several of those people were very annoying. David was, by far, the worst.
I really enjoyed my instructors from this term though. We had two different instructors. Chef DiMuzio specialized in breads, and Chef Danks (or Chef Dizzle, as he liked to call himself) specialized in pastry. They were both very cool instructors and quite laid back. Chef DiMuzio had this great dry humor that not very many people got, and Chef Danks was just plain crazy. (We found out his parents were hippies. That explained a lot.) I actually felt really bad because I was ready for the class to end, but it had nothing to do with the instructors. It had to do with the other students. That is kind of funny though because Chef Danks had said something to us about how he had never had such a “f***ed up” class before. That seemed to be a trend with my class.
This term was difficult for me at first because baking is so much different from cooking. Baking is more of an exact science compared to cooking. If you don’t get the measurements down right everything could turn out wrong. Well, this lesson was learned quickly the first day of classes. We started out making muffins. At the end of class we had a product check. None of the muffins turned out quite right. In my group (which included Natalie and Angie) one batch of our muffins didn’t rise and another batch nearly exploded.
Things got better as we went through the semester though. I really enjoyed everything that we did. We studied a wide range of techniques and different recipes. We learned how to make a variety of breads, different cookies, different cakes, all different styles of ice cream, chocolate, and lots of other stuff. Needless to say, I gained a lot of weight during this term.
By the end of the term I was having so much fun. I actually considered going into pastry. Decorating cakes was the most fun for me. Actually, I got pretty good at it which was noticed by the proctor of our final practical. He had a little interview with each of the students. I got one of the few A’s on the practical. He told me that I had a good eye for how things should look. He asked if I considered going into pastry at all because he thought that I would do very well in pastry. I still think that I would enjoy it a lot.
But on to some of the juicy stuff. So, this David guy was very annoying. My first impression of him was not very good. He thought that he knew how to do everything and tried to prove that to everyone. (Although that didn’t make any sense cause it was his third time taking the class.) So David was on my bad side from the beginning. Well, Angie had a thing for David. (I don’t know why.) She had hung out with him a couple of times, but we later found out that he was engaged. Well, he had told Angie that he and his girlfriend were having problems. That was obviously not true since Chef Taylor had told us that he received an invitation to his engagement party.
As if that wasn’t enough, he was also one of the biggest assholes in the class. He would always complain about how the kitchen was so dirty and how no one was cleaning when he was the only one standing around doing nothing but complaining.
Then there was the day of the practical. He had finished decorating his cake and was complaining about how bad it looked and carrying it around the room complaining to each person individually. Well, when he walked up to Trip, who was still in the process of meticulously decorating his cake, he dropped his cake on Trip’s. Poor Trip was so upset but didn’t lash out, like most of the rest of us would have. Luckily David told the proctor, and he took it into account when he was grading Trip’s cake.
Term 4: CUL 1450 Advanced Production Skills (Garde Manger & Charcuterie)
This term was by far the most interesting for me. We focused a lot on making the food look nice, and there were so many new things that I learned in this class. On our first day of class we did fruit and vegetable carving. A week later we did ice carving. We also learned how to make sausage and cured foods and learned how to prepare fancy things like pates and terrines and foie gras.
Our chef instructor this term was Chef Jerome. He’s French and studied in several places around Europe. Just before the term started his wife had a baby boy. Towards the end of the term it was clear that he too was not very fond of the guys in our class. Of course it was also in this class that I really started to lose any respect I had for Xavier while Trip gained more of my respect. Funny how that works.
The thing that I enjoyed most about this term is that we focused a lot on presentation. I had so much fun preparing the mirrors for the buffets we had. And it was really neat how we could manipulate food and make it look so artistic and beautiful.
My two proudest moments during this term were during the graduation buffet and the final practical. I acted as the chef for the graduation buffet. So that meant that I had to pick out the menu and make sure things got done right and on time. (Of course this was under the supervision of Chef Jerome.) It was pretty stressful making sure that everything ran smoothly, but It was also a lot of fun. It was a great lesson in leadership in the kitchen, and I learned how important communication and timing are when preparing a huge event. I also learned how to be realistic when making decisions. Some things sounded like great ideas, but we just didn’t have the resources to do them, and then there were some things that certain people would be better at than others.
Now the final practical was really my time (well, I guess my other time) to shine. We had to create an appetizer, a salad, a soup, and an entrée using only the items that were on the cart. So it was kind of like an Iron Chef thing cause we didn’t know what we were going to have and could only use what we were given. All of the food I made had an Asian flair to it. My salad was just a regular salad with dried fruit, toasted nuts, shaved parmesan cheese, and a sweet and tangy dressing. Kind of boring. My soup was asparagus cream soup with a spicy roasted red pepper sauce drizzled on top and a seared sea scallop. My appetizer was an attempt at this amazing rare beef and calamari dish that I always get from a Vietnamese place in Mobile. (Anyone who’s been there with me knows how amazing that dish is.) The beef and calamari are ‘cooked’ in a lemon dressing and served with fresh herbs on top. My entrée was seared pork loin marinated in soy sauce, ginger, and garlic served with a garlic and ginger infused risotto. I got a 99, and the chef proctor said that he took off the one point “just to be an ass”. Of course I think that he really did it cause my appetizer wasn’t perfect. The calamari was a bit tough, and it was a bit too lemony. But he did say that I had a lot of balls for choosing such a risky appetizer to do.
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| Term 1: CUL 1000 Fundamental Food Production Skills
The first day of class was so nerve-racking. I didn’t know what to expect. Were my classmates going to be all gung-ho cooks way out of my league? Was my instructor going to be an evil tyrant throwing pots and pans at anyone who made a mistake? I couldn’t sleep the night before which was not good for me because I had to drive 2 hours to class in the morning. (I hadn’t yet moved into my apartment for several reasons. But mainly because the stupid lady who worked there called me, on our move in day, to tell me that we couldn’t move in. Well that completely messed up my plans cause Mom took off that day to help me move in. Stupid.)
I arrived at school about 15 minutes before class but then realized that I was at the wrong building. (The actual cooking classes are held at the school’s restaurant.) Fortunately the place where I was supposed to be was only a couple of minutes away. I arrived at the restaurant afraid that I was late and that I would get yelled at for not knowing how to tie my neckerchief. I walked in the door and at the desk are a couple of chef instructors and a few students. One of them looked as nervous as I did. They were getting an impromptu lesson on how to tie a neckerchief. After observing for a while I headed down to the classroom where we would have our first lecture.
Natalie, the girl who was at the desk getting a lesson in neckerchiefs, asks to sit beside me. She is the first person in class in met and becomes one of my good friends in the class. We meet Chef Taylor and Ms. Rice, our culinary instructor and safety & sanitation instructor respectively. The lectures were very long, and it made me wonder how I was going to get through my 5 hour classes if I couldn’t even stand sitting in a lecture for an hour and a half.
After a class ice breaker and a tour of the restaurant we were finally let into the kitchen to do some knife cuts. Everyone was just supposed to be getting a feel for their knives and learning how to properly hold them. Natalie cut her finger. I felt so bad for her cutting her finger the first day of class, but I was also glad that it wasn’t me. The first day ended with no accidents for me.
Natalie. Angela. Talitha. Luis. Xavier. Trip. Joe. Trent. These were the people that I would be spending the next 6 months with as we journeyed on our culinary quest for knowledge. (I’m a dork.) By the end of the term we would lose two people dropping the number of people in our class to seven. By the end of the second term we would all be at each other’s throats.
There were a couple of times during the term that I didn’t’ think I could handle it all. I was driving back and forth from Birmingham to Russellville every day. I was so tired but had so much reading and studying to do when I got home. Those first few weeks were so hard, but I soon got the hang or it. And as the weeks passed I became known as the class nerd and the one with the eye for plating.
Only a few things really stick out in my mind from 1000. Not that it wasn’t memorable, but we didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot of food. The first week or so we did stocks, soups and lots of sauces, occasionally having something to serve our sauces on. Later we did some breakfast foods, which included having an egg race where we would compete to see who could fill two different orders of eggs properly and the fastest. We also had a pizza and pasta day where we made our own pizza and pasta dough. And later we had sandwich day. That day a bunch of students from the other class came to get some of our food.
The first day that I was really proud of myself and the work that I did was the day we did thick soups. I know it sounds really stupid, but it was first feeling of approval that I had in class. I was working with Luis that day. We were supposed to make Potato Leek Soup, Shrimp Bisque, and Cream of Mushroom Soup. Chef Taylor really liked our Mushroom Soup and told the class that they had to taste our soup because it was the way that Cream of Mushroom Soup is supposed to taste. He also really liked the way that I served the bisque. He said that I have a good eye. (Which is funny considering that I’m almost blind.)
I can still remember the day, though, that we first cooked lobsters. Talitha jumped back when Chef Taylor forcibly drove his knife into the lobster’s head. It was already dead, but the reflexes caused the lobster to keep twitching whenever he moved the knife around. Several people were mildly disturbed by this. I wasn’t because I’m a sick and morbid person.
I had made it through my first term without losing my mind or any of my fingers. Unfortunately Joe had some problems with the law and had to drop out because he had several court dates he had to meet. (Something about “prescription” drugs in one of those week containers that has the different compartments for each day.) The other person who we lost was Trent. He was in a car accident one night but wasn’t discovered until the next morning. It was one of those really cold nights too. He ended up with two broken hips and a broken leg. I heard that he will be starting 1000 over again this month.
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| Hello! It's been a while, and I just wanted to share some of my emotions and interesting news. So, as most of you should know, I am going to culinary school in Birmingham at Culinard. I have not been as nervous or stressed out as I usually am whenever I'm being thrown into some new element. But I had orientation this past Thursday, and it left me feeling excited, nervous, anxious, and stressed out all once. I'm almost positive that I'm going to enjoy my classes once I get acclimated to the atmosphere, but I'm so nervous about that part. I'm just not sure how I'm going to take to re-learning all the things that I know, probably improperly, how to do. And I'm afraid that my confidence in the kitchen at home is going to carry over too much and hurt me instead of help me. I can cook in my own kitchen, but being in a commercial kitchen will be so much different. Anyway, enough about how nervous I am. Let me tell you about the more exciting parts. When I was first reading through the class descriptions one of them said that we would be learning the basics of ice sculpting, so I may be able to do some minor ice sculpting when I'm through! Oh, and then there were the externship possibilities. Well, I know for sure that they have contacts in New Orleans, but they also have some in Mobile....oh, and not to mention, Orlando and Las Vegas. They work with Disneyworld quite a bit and said that if you want to work full-time at Disney after you finish your externship that Disney will pay for any further education that you may need. Oh, and they have contacts with some hotels in Las Vegas like Bellagio and Wynn. So I could pretty much go anywhere I want to for my 3 month long externship. Anyway, everyone pray for me. By the way, I got my uniform and knife kit on Thursday. I would have posted some pictures of me in my uniform, but as of right now, I am camera-less. Hopefully those will be coming soon. | | |
| Ok, here's the deal. (And forgive me if this doesn't make any sense. It's late, and I'm really tired.) I really do want to open a restaurant someday. But I'm not sure I want to go to culinary school cause I don't want to make cooking my sole occupation, and I don't want it to become something that is just a job for me and no longer something I can just enjoy doing at home. Also, I don't think that I need to be a chef in order to have a great restaurant, although it would give me more credit. There are plenty of people out there who aren't chefs and just do what they do really well, all those little "mom & pop" kind of places and hole-in-the-wall local restaurants. And there have also been chefs who haven't succeeded with their restaurants because they didn't know how to run a business. Another thing is that I would like be in a good place, financially speaking, to open a restaurant and not have to borrow too much money from people. Although I do realize that there's no way that I'm going to be able to do that alone. I guess that's why I want to find some job to do that does not revolve around food, so that I can have another job to make some sort of living from and to be able to make some money to get me to the point where I would feel more secure opening a restaurant. Of course, now I'm not so sure what kind of job I want to do now. And I guess that's where my main problem lies at the moment. Oh, and thanks to all of you who are always so supportive of me and my dreams and seem to care so much about my happiness. | | |
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