This will be my official first holiday season as a professional chef. Whether I am watching and learning or helping and cooking, growing up I’ve always been apart of the food preparation during the holiday season. It’s much different than cooking dinner on your every average Tuesday. There is a lot more planning, prepping, cooking, and most certainly eating that takes place. This season I’ve made it a point to really pay close attention to the whole formula of how this thing actually works: the recipes, ingredients, measurements and amounts, the cooking techniques, the times and temperatures etc. What I’ve gathered is that none of that matters. You see when my mom and grandma step into a kitchen to prepare a holiday meal there aren’t any recipes or measurements. There are specific ways of doing certain things but nothing is ever calculated. It all comes from the heart. This is no doubt where the term “tender, love, and care” was first coined – in a soulful kitchen. I call it Truth In Cooking. I’d like to say that everything is done by hand to add to the ambiance of the story, but it’s about to be 2011, so we use food processors, immersion blenders, mixers and whatever other electrical appliance we can find to cut time in half (sorry grandma). How ever it is done, the result is food at perfection. It starts on the eve of said holiday occasion that carries on through the night and through the rooster crowing and doesn’t even stop after everyones stomach has stopped growing, because we all know about the turkey, ham, or roast sandwiches that follow. Many of you know all to well what I’m talking about but we sometimes take it for granted.  My prayer is that we all get to experience the trifecta this holiday season and many more to come – Faith, Family, and Food!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you all have a very blessed and prosperous New Year.

Woooooooo!

A lot has happened since I last wrote in February. I am officially done with all of my classes and I am just about finished with my internship. For those who don’t know it, I have been working as a tour/personal chef for the Zac Brown Band and his record label Southern Ground Artists, Inc. Only 3 months on the job I am kind of still the new guy because everyone has known each other for years but working for this family, because that is how everyone treats everyone – like family, has been a tremendous blessing. The guy I work for is the Executive Chef – Rusty Hamlin (chefrusty.com). Working under Rusty has been so beneficial to the development of my craft and I look forward to many more experiences with this industry slugger.

To give you a better look at what I actually do for the band, copy and paste the link below and check out “Behind The Shell” with Carson daily. Their camera crew followed us around for the day in Oklahoma City to take a closer look at the “Eat and Greet.”

http://behindtheshell.msn.com/videos/Zac-Brown-Band/111

We have been all over the US:

So when I’m on the road the whole fleet travels as one. There are now a total of 6 tour buses, 7 semi-trucks, and about 75 people including band/crew/support/catering. Each bus sleeps 12 people and surprisingly it’s not that bad. The buses are like moving houses, they have everything you need. I sleep here…

Its pretty snug in my bunk, especially with the TV down. I pretty much have to roll in and roll out and the first night I hardly got any sleep because we are moving and the bus is so big and noisy, everything is abrupt. After a few days on the road, by bed time, its been such a long day that sometimes you cant wait to get to your bunk and you have no problem falling sleep. 

For the first couple of runs we were cooking out of a 14 foot cook trailer that was appropriately named “Miss-Treated.” She has definitely got some miles on her tires and its very evident by the way she looks, but she never missed a meal when it came to feeding 200+ people for the Eat N Greet. She was small, ugly and run down, but she got the job done.

Those days are over!

Zac and Rusty are so passionate about food. Zac and the band really feel like its important that they spend that intimate time with people at the Eat N Greet, so much so that they were willing to invest in it by designing and building a custom-made semi-truck kitchen.  Their vision is that one day they will be able to host their own festival and feed people the foods they love to eat on a daily basis. This is step one…

The moment I saw it, I forgot all about Miss Treated.  This bad-boy is a fully loaded 54 foot tractor-trailer converted kitchen. On its worst day it will store, prep, cook, and feed around 1000 people per meal. It has a 3 foot slide out extension, 2 level cabin bay, rear lift gate that could raise and lower a small car, upper deck observatory, and a pop out canopy tent that can house 200 people (AIR CONDITIONED!) If there is anything you’ve ever needed in a commercial kitchen, this thing has it. I cant wait to take it out for the first time on our November tour.

So when I’m not on the road cooking, I am in Atlanta either cooking for the bands families and thier private parties or I am the warehouse cooking in the new test Kitchen where we will be working on new recipes for Volume 2 of their cookbook.

I have joined this whole operation at a time when things are really starting to take-off.  The band just finished their home-base warehouse in Atlanta (I won’t even get started on how awesome it is) and they just released their new album “You Get What You Give” a few weeks ago.  So you don’t even have to ask me how I feel – really blessed… Thank you God!  I have been so blessed to have family and friends that believe in me and my passion and I am so thankful to Johnson and Wales for laying a solid foundation of knowledge and skills for this industry. I think I am going to be Southern Ground for a while.

Stay Tuned – Southern Ground Grub recipes coming soon…

I know it’s been a while but I’ve just had a lot going on over these past couple of months.  I’ve been in Fundamentals of Food Production which focuses on three cooking techniques with a concentration on producing food for higher volumes;  sauté, baking, and shallow frying.

We cooked foods like: home fries, eggs Benedict, crepes and omelets.  You wouldn’t believe how many different ways you can cook an egg!  We also made quiche, frittata, chicken wellington, meatloaf (and I’m not talking about Americanized “ball of meat”) I mean a combination of ground beef, pork, and turkey, chicken, or lamb combined with fresh herbs and spices with NO sauce to give you the juiciest, most flavorful piece of loaf you have ever had.  We’ve made Chicken Marsala (which also equals tears of joy), Asian pork, shrimp scampi pasta, mussels, and all of the side dishes you can think of.  We have shallow fried just about every kind protein that has legs and lives on a farm.

I have also taken a Principles of Beverage Service, so if you can drink it, I learned how to make, mix, and flare it up.

Now I am in Nutrition.  I know, I know, but learning how to create well balanced dishes will be very important in the years to come, at least people will start to pay more attention to it.  If it’s green or grows from the earth, we are cooking it.  Its cool though because you would be surprised how you can turn something like broccoli or spinach etc and cook it in such a way to where that’s all you want to eat.  Also I am learning how to substitute certain items in food so that you can decrease fat and calorie intake without losing all those great flavors everyone loves.  For example, we took a very common Alfredo recipe, one that most people consume, which yielded 60 grams of fat per serving and took it down to 7 grams of fat per serving and it tasted amazing.  60 GRAMS of fat is crazy, which is a whole days worth of fat intake in just ONE 8-12 oz portion of pasta.  A lot of people don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff, but it’s crazy right?!

Below are just a few pictures of some stuff that we have made in class and a few things that I have tinkered with at home.  I need to remember to take more pictures but you know how it is, you just get caught up in the moment and your mouth starts watering and all you want to do is eat! LOL!

Sushi from scratch with grilled salmon, cucumber, avocado, and spicy mayo.

Spring Rolls with Salmon and various veggies, herbs and spices.

Mini Gyros with Tzatziki sauce.

Fire roasted Chili Pepper and Cumin Humus Pizza.. So good!

Grilled Shrimp bites with Mango and Pineapple Salsa and Jalapeno Cream Sauce.

Fried Calamari with a Pineapple Chili Sauce.

Homemade Chicken Lo Mein, same great take-out taste, less fat!

Chicken Pesto Pasta.

My Dad’s Chili Recipe, mm mm mm!

Katie got my very first cast-iron skillet, just getting that real good first layer of flavor, so good!

My Beverage class, everyone had their own bar, it was really cool!

I had to add this one, we have a Master Patissier at our school, his name is Chef Harry Peemoeller.  He is a bread master, this sculpture he made for a competition was completely made out of bread, which he dominated of course. Awesome isn’t it?!

Well til next time…

Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you love, just enjoy them sparingly!

As the expiditor I’m yelling, “Fire!” Plates come flying from all directions; section five has food that is sitting – catching reflections.  Where’s my runner?  What cover’s missing?  Six soups all day, I need a Caesar, I’m down two Ahi – On the fly!  Why in the world is this sauce separating?  Take it back and do it right.  Bump table 12 – their steaks are resting.  I need those sides to make it sell.  Hey, tell the bar I need well whisky and some wine – some for the food and some for the mind.

Its been such a “weeded” day (busy and behind).  This cacophony carries on for several hours with miniscule lulls.  In the midst of this poetic madness, I’m aware that I absolutely love it all!  The successes and the failures, the good, the bad, the ugly, the smooth and the oh-so rough.  I may earn only pennies for my passion but the pennies are enough.  I would rather play this tune day and night with no compensation, than to not and live in devastation.  This is my finale, my rush, my symphony. 

The rush dwindles and the tickets trickle; the sigh of relief is mutual.  As usual, the banter thickens now that it’s been given time to breathe.  The camaraderie of accomplishment echoes down hallways and soaks walls.  The withered walls, rooms and hallways that house this untamed madness are just as excited as we are.  The chaos is on our aprons but off our hands as the rush withdraws.  There will be no encore until tomorrow.  The time to clean is coming on soon - we erase the evidence of our battle wounds.  Tomorrow starts anew – another day to fulfill the dream, to cook until I scream.  But for now I’ll get some sleep and a bite to eat before I repeat this memory.  From the top, I’ll play it again, gladly.

THIS IS MY SYMPHONY!

The End

The slow midday hours, somewhere between AM and PM placing orders, checking reservations, having production meetings, making sure were set for the week.  To be honest, I’d rather be in the back, on the floor, by the ice machine taking a much-needed nap.  I settle instead for a 5-er out back where the alley cats meet, the galley for the industries greatest.  The stoops on the back streets where cooks meet and discuss the meaning of life.  Who did what to who? By annoying do you mean you? And what is the heck happened to ol-whats-his-name?  He never showed up last week.  Their goes his streak, what a freak.  I would say that I don’t mean to be so crude, but I do.  I mean dude, its your life, less strife, more knife – for me that is. Hahaha. Sorry-for-ya… This is my symphony. 

The night crew enters a well-tuned kitchen, discussing the night before.  More vibrant than the morning crews because they took a longer snooze.  They are the owls of the industry, the ones who work until 3, stay up until 5, the ones who are at bay sleeping the morning away.  They are war-torn combatants, proud of their scares, ready for the their benevolent moment, the curtain call – ha, with hardened hands and sturdy hearts.  My line cooks play their part – a full-speed start, the race for mise en place, the prepping of their line, the back and forth jest of the frantic order, all the while preparing themselves for serving time.  We all know whats coming because we have all been here, but, underneath the confidence lies the undertone of fear – of the unknown.  Whatever is known is none, knowing only variables.  No matter how many times we play this song, we play it differently every time.  The rhythm of the rush will change the lyrics with which we rhyme.  It goes:

“One for the customer and two for the food they fancy; three for the way the server rings it, and four when the cooks start dancing; five for the freedom, six for the stresses, and seven for the madness when we all fall into messes.”

This is my symphony!

To be continued.

When I arrive I find her standing in the same shape that I left her, only empty now.  She is all cleared out and quietly waiting.  First things first: I start the coffee before walking back to light the kitchen.  The hood sings a squeal like and old man when I hit the switch as if her were ill and I woke him.  I say, “I’m sorry,” because I know just how he feels.  The pilot lights are lit and the hiss of gas becomes a flame.  Down the line I turn the knobs and bring the kitchen back to life again.  I shuffle back out to the coffee pot with a cup and with sugar from the bin; I fill it up, then pour cream in and watch the spirals until they blend.  Outside the city is showing signs of life; the headlights and traffic lights bicker back and forth like fireflies while commuters sigh behind the wheel.  I step outside to steel one more gasp of air, with a note, join the chorus.  A verse from a hip-hop song pours into my head and I grin, reciting the lyrics as the beat drops in: “Everyone who doubted me is asking for forgiveness, if you havent been apart of it at least you got to witness.”

Each day begins this way, this temp – tranqillo.  Like a track though, it’s coming – the transition to rapidity.  This is my rendition. This is my symphony. 

Back inside. My hands are washed, my apron tied and my knife is upon the board.  I walk into the cooler and check the rack; I’m two soups short.  I finger the produce, wondering which will induce my fancy.  What meats talk to me about the soups they could be?  To cream or not to cream.  Butter – yes, almost always start with butter – nothing smells better melting.  I help the onions in and listen as they begin to sweat, then celery and leeks, then garlic. This is my minuet.

Before the morning crew arrives, as the sun begins to break the sky, with the radio tuned to classical, most days there stand I, over a stove or two, and a sink or a few, wooden spoon in hand, a happy man, conducting plates as usual.  There I find my peace, my minuet, in this, my symphony. 

The haggard bedraggled boys of the morning crew have found their way to work,  after playing their own tunes at a nightly cirque – du solei.  Their stations are set for the lunchtime fight, their knees now deep in the prep for tonight.  It’ll be noon soon and the crowd will undoubtedly come at once.  The lawyers and the businessmen, the women and their lunch break friends, the out-of-towners and the regulars – their hunger upon our hands.  I stand ready for testing – the first round of service, the sudden pop, the rush, then emptiness – the quickness of a summer storm.  Torn between calm and calamity, lunch dies as quick as it’s born.  Andante now for the finishing, the diminishing list of prep.  The cleanup and the curtain call, the clocking out, “until tomorrow y’all,” and like that – Act One is done.  I’m the only one left, remembering that Act Two is still to come.  I look to my shadow for sympathy. 

This is my symphony!

To be continued.

It’s 6 a.m. and my alarm clock is ringing, no actually screaming – “Get up, get up.” I hit it once and go back to dreaming.  Right before Rem sets back in, it rings again.  I can’t win!  With unmatched emotions of anger and excitement, I arise.  I sit still for just a moment, collect my thoughts and thank God for another day in this life, another chance to fulfill the dream, to  cook until I scream.  The unexplainable 80-hour workweek has set in as I wake the aches and sores form the days before.  I brush my teeth, put on my chefs coat, grab my keys, split a banana, crank Santana, push the door open and let the morning come rushing in.  When I hit the cold wet streets of the Queen city my mind begins to wonder about the sweet sound of slumber.  I quickly come-to, Deja vu – the melody that I remember will play over, just for me – like a story or album on repeat.  I live in glorious memory.  I’m not complaining,  I am content. 

This is my symphony!

To be continued…

I’m doing a complete switch this round, I am now taking AM labs.  Traditionally I would be in class only from 7 AM to 1 PM.  Since the school is a little overcrowded this year I was unable to take a class that I needed to take last semester.  So I have to double up on the only 2 core classes I have to take; Food Safety and Sanitation and Introduction to Menu Planning and Cost Control.  The other classes I am taking this semester are Principles of Beverage Service, Nutrition and Sensory Analysis, Fundamentals of Food Service Production and Purchasing & Product Identification.

The teacher I have for Meat Cutting is pretty awesome actually.  We spent half of today listening to him talk about kitchen horror stories (which by the way only got the class motivated) wierd huh?  I look forward to another succesful semester. 

Wish me luck because for my Co-op I am trying to study abroad, either in the UK or Australia.  I’ve been doing some research and because of the “times” its pretty difficult to try and get a slot open to be able to do so.  My instructors told me only a handful of people studied abroad last year so its pretty competitive.  They tell me you have to already have a pretty well connected network established with people in those countries to be able to pursue it further.  So you all know me.. I went right to the Dean of the University and asked him for a letter of recommendation.  He looked at me like I was crazy and in his foreign language said “but I dant iven know-ya”! haha I shrugged my shoulders and told him I really wanted it.  So he’s going to write me one in January.

Sorry about being away for the past month.  My last class was Stocks, Sauces, and Soups and it was hard to post recipes because we were predominantly making yields on a larger scale.  Below is a chart of the different cuts of meat I have to produce just from a cow.  Next post I am bringing you all on a journey into the day in the life of a culinarian.  I call it “My Symphony.” Until then to all you foodies out there who love to eat and drink but can’t afford it or cook.  Butter makes it better.  And the best secret I’ve learned is that I cook with wine, and sometimes I even add it to the food ; )

Also I made homemade pasta for the first time.  It was kind of a dissaster at first actually, you have to build a wall with the flour and then put the eggs in the middle and work the eggs slowly into the flour to get a nice even dough.  Well mine didn’t quite work out that way.  Flour and eggs were everywhere, but I was able to recover and so will you if you run into the same problems.

Homemade Pasta

Should I ask my boss for a promotion?

Should I ask her/him out?

Should I ask her to marry me?

Should we have a baby?

I’ve always wanted to work for the government.

I’ve always wanted to be a pro athlete.

I’ve always wanted to live at sea.

I’ve always wanted to be a cop.

I’ve always wanted to take a trip to Europe?

I’ve always wanted to fly planes.

Should I open my own business?

Should I go to med-school and become a doctor?

Should I work for NASA so I can travel into space like I’ve always wanted to?

I love designing and building, should I become and architect?

Should I go to Law School, become a lawyer and open my own practice?

Should I move to California or NY to try and become an actor, musician or dancer?

I’ve always wanted to go to culinary school and become a chef.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Compared to eternity, life is too short my friends.  I encourage all of you to find what it is that you love and just do it.  Every second of everyday is a chance to do so and it’s never to late.  I don’t care if you’ve always enjoyed cutting grass or if you’ve always wanted to fly to mars.  repeat after me “Ive always wanted to ____________.”  Think about it, and when you think to yourself I can’t or it’s too late or I dont have time or it’s not in the budget.  Think about this… someone, somewhere in you situation and with your circumstances has done it.  So NOTHING in this world in unattainable.  Now I am going to call you out… You can make excuses or you can do what you’ve always wanted.  Choose the latter.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Cheers

Getting ready for my presentations to the head chef.

Final Plate Presentaions

Hush Puppies with Scallions, Spicy Beer Battered Flounder topped with a Herb Infused Malt Vinegar, and Lemon-Habanero Tartar Sauce

Lemon, Butter and Herb Roasted Chicken, Blanched Green Beans with Garlic, Lemon, Parsley and Julienned Carrots, and Butter-Cream Mushroom Risotto

Grilled Ribeye with Chimichurri Sauce, Pomme’ Puree and Grilled Asparagus with Tomato Vinaigrette

I actually kind of surprised myself.  I knew that I had to make these dishes for my first practical and I also had to come up with my own plate presentations.  I was really just winging it, so I didn’t expect them to turn out so well.  I ended up getting a 95, 97 and 99 considering the head chef had to act like she was a judge from Iron Chef, which really made it kind of cool becuase we had to break down each item just like they do in the show and explain our motivation for each dish.

I hope you all try these recipes becuase they are bangerrang – Enjoy!

I won’t have any recipes for 2 weeks because I’m taking Essentials of Dining Room next.  So… til then.

Ladies and gentlemen (mostly the ladies because I know how crucial a woman’s relationship is with chocolate) I had probably one of the best dessert breads I have ever had yesterday.  It is called Babka.  Traditionally it is a Jewish cake that is mixed with sugar, candied fruits, raisins, and rum.  The JWU recipe however is quite different.   They have turned it into more of a bread and instead of all of the candied fruit and raisin, it is packed LOADED with pockets and morels of chocolate.  The texture of the bread is very similar to that of a ciabatta, it had kind of a crisp crunchy outside with a warm, soft and gooey inside surrounded by chocolate.  Unfortunately I don’t have the recipe because it was brought to us by another class.  I would have just looked one up, but there are several different variations of recipes on the internet.  Plus when I do take the Into to Baking course and finally get the right recipe, I promise it will be worth the wait.  The picture you see below doesn’t even do it justice, just imagine what you see but with chocolate literally bursting out of the sides of an entire loaf and all over the bread.

We have made some incredible food over the last couple of days.

Roast Groups

Cuban-Style Pork Loin, Chayote Squash with Corn and Chiles, Roast Chicken with Herbs and Garlic, Roasted Paprika Potatoes, Jamaican Rice and Peas, Chili-Roasted Chicken with Roast Garlic Gravy, Caribbean Roast Lamb, Roasted Calabaza Squash with Curry and Coriander, Yellow Rice with Sofrito, Jicama & Orange Salad

 Fry Groups

Soft Fish Tacos with Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, Red Cabbage Slaw and Habanero-pickled Onions, Tostones, Stamp and Go with Sauce Chicken, Yucca Crisps with Chipotle Mayonnaise and Mojo Sauce, Chile Rellenos with Tomato Sauce, Snapper Escabeche with Bell Peppers and Green Beans, Buffalo Chicken Wings with Celery & Blue Cheese Dressing, Drunken Beans (REALLY GOOD)

 Grill Groups

Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Pineapple Habanero Sauce, Pommes Purée, Grilled Shrimp and Mango Salad, Spicy Black Beans and Rice, Grilled Corn with Chipotle Butter, Grilled Chorizo, Shrimp and Skirt Steak Anticucho with Chimichurri Rojo, Pork tenderloin & Flank Steak Churrasco with Chimichurri Verde, Grilled Zucchini and Summer Squash Salad with Basil-Parmesan Dressing Mexican Rice

I’ve got practicals starting tomorrow.  The first day I am making Fish and Chips, the second day I am making Grilled Prime Rib with Pomme Puree, and the third day I am making a Roasted Garlic and Butter Herb Chicken with a Jus Lie Sauce.  Ive already made all this food and absolutely dominated each one, we just have to be tested on it for presentation, taste, and texture.  So the first class is almost over, just one step closer to the dream!

In a small but very nice and fully stocked kitchen there are 23 people frantically trying to get their tasks done for the day.  After lecture, we usually have around 3 hours to prepare 3 full course meals to the classes visiting for the day (which are usually classes like baking, or dinning room, or stocks, classes that don’t make full meals).  Everyone has knife cuts to get approved, vegetables and meats to cut. There are ovens, grills, fryers, and stoves to get hot.  For some reason no one wants to cook in any kind of order so we are all trying to cook everything at once and it’s just not possible.  If you were watching from the outside, the best way I think to describe what was going on is a chaotic thrill.  The kitchen gets really messy, unorganized, and the dishes pile to the ceiling.  We are always down to the last second, but it always gets done. When the food is ready we serve it to our guests for the day.  I don’t know about anyone else, but the best part for me is watching people eat the food I have prepared.  It is really humbling to me watching someone enjoy something I have just made with my own hands.  All of the enthralled facial expressions and the occasional “mmm this is so good” is a pleasant ending to a hard day slaving in the kitchen.  As hungry as I am watching them eat, I am so satisfied by their gratification and appreciation, I don’t even need to eat (but you know I do).

 Of course when we are all done eating the last thing anyone wants to do is clean, but we have to do it everyday.  It’s not just a wipe off the tables and sweep the floors clean either.  It is a full North, South, East, West, and outer space scrub down.  We have to get in every crack and crevice possible.  I want you to imagine a kitchen in a restaurant, everything from top to bottom has to be individually scrubbed with serious elbow grease.

When class is dismissed I walk home with Z.  Its been a long first week for us.  Both of us have this look of slight death on our faces, we look like we’ve just been to war and it sure feels like it too.  My feet, ankles, legs, knees, and back are about to give out. The funny thing is the pain doesn’t even matter.  All I can think about is how I can’t wait to do it all over again next week.  Stay tuned!

Enjoy!

Man oooo man.. The first day was nothing short of a handful and a half! First of all I go to my morning class and about an hour in, the Dean comes in demanding for two people to switch to afternoon classes.  Of course no one wanted to and everyone was sweating bullets because he was going to draw names out of a hat.  So being the kind hearted gentleman I am, I volunteered.  I didnt really want to so I could have the rest of the afternoon off to chillax, get a job, or  just chillax,  but it’s going to pay off because the Dean said he owes me a huge favor (and you better believe I’m taking full advantage).  So now my schedule has completely changed.  I am still taking the same classes, minus my food safety class this semester.  Also I am currently taking New World Cusine instead of Essentials of Dining Room, so here comes the good part.. all of the recipes.  I will get to those in just a little bit.

First, I just need to brag about how I am “Old Man River” in my class.  I look around in class today and I’m surrounded by all these little 17 and 18-year-old babies.  Its kinda cool though because I guess everyone kinda recognized me as older, so all of them are kinda looking up to me and seeing how I am doing things.  There are plenty of older people at JWU just not in my class currently.  Also (since I worked with and under such awesome people at (cough cough) “Campus Catering”) it just so happens that all of my prep work and knife skills were “extremely exceptional” so says my instructor.  And you know I have to mention that she took a double-take at my name tag and said she will remember me for the future.  So yours truly is off to an awesome start!

Now for what you all are probably waiting on so you can drool and imagine how awesome all of this food really is.  The menu I am posting is what we made today.  New World cuisine focuses primarily on Roasting, (my favorite) Grilling  and (every bodies favorite but my worst enemy for 10 days) Deep Fat Frying.  So the menu for today was as follows. 

Roasted Course – Roast Chicken with Herbs, Garlic and Jus Lie (sauce), Herb Roasted Potatoes, Herb Roasted Pork Loin, Red Bell And Poblano Rajas con crema.

Grilled Course – Gilled Chicken with tomato basil sauce, Grilled Corn with roasted garlic, Beer brined pork chops with creole salsa, Grilled Zucchini and Summer Squash with basil-parmesan dressing.

Fried Course – Fried Calamari, with Rouille, Cornmeal-crusted Flounder with Tartar Sauce, Southern Fried Chicken with creamy gravy, Pomme Frites (fancy for french fries) and Pomme Puree (fancy for mashed potatoes).

Now I know what you’re thinking, because I was thinking the same.  Yes it is an insane amount of food but we do feed it to different classes every day.  And No, as much as I wanted to stuff my face with everything, I didnt otherwise you would need a fork lift to get me outta here after a year. 

Attached at the bottom are all the recipes for what we cooked and some of them are really easy and some of them are really tricky.  This blog site doesnt support uploading .doc files very well so the way I had to do it left me no choice but to mix recipes.  Pick apart what you will and I encourage all of you to try and make these dishes, if not a whole meal, at least a part of one because all of this food is amazing.  Now there are certain techniques used to make some of these foods but the instructions should be somewhat clear but if you have any questions please call me and I try and help talk you through it.

It looks like I am going to be busier than I thought so I doubt I will be posting everyday but when I do I will include all juicy details.  Til next time.

PS – I will try and get some more pictures in here to livin’ things up a bit.

Alright… Finally… class starts Tuesday.  I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know my TV remote control, watching several movies and hours of Food Network, and of course cooking lots of food. My roommate,the lovely Kathryn Ziemann, and I have literally been the epitome of  couch potatoes.  We all know about Idle Hands, so I’m ready to get back into the grind.

I’ve finally received all of my uniforms and just picked up my knife set this morning, which by the way is off the chain!  I won’t be able to post any recipes or anything like that for at least two weeks because my first class is Essentials of Dinning Room.  The class structure here is very different to what most of us are accustomed to.  They run on Trimesters and you take six courses per trimester.  You take each course one at a time for 10 days, 9 days learning and on the 10th day a practical.  This trimester I’m taking Essentials of Dinning Room(which I’m going to dominate since I’ve got prime experience working for a catering company (shout out to Campus Catering) for the last two years).  I will also be taking Stock, Sauces and Soups, Traditional European Cuisine, Intro to Baking and Pastry (Gonna be rough on the diet), New World Cuisine, and  Food Safety and Sanitation Management.  Check back Tuesday evening for an update.

My father and I shared a dream of being a chef in a family owned restaurant for several years. For the longest time we would always talk a big game by gathering information, making plans, and writing ideas on paper. Had time allowed it, I would like to think that we would’ve eventually done it. I’ve always known that everyday isn’t promised to us and that we shouldn’t waste time doing things that don’t make us happy. It’s unfortunate that tragedy often has to put things in to perspective for people but it’s something God always wants us to learn from. With that said I finally can see to it that the dream that my father and I have will be carried out.

I just finished getting my BBA at UGA and now I’m living in Charlotte North Carolina. I will be attending Johnson and Wales University in the fall getting a degree in Culinary Arts and I start September 8th. I know what some of you may be thinking “why is he going to spend all that money on some school to learn how to cook”? Well I’m not going to JWU to learn how to cook, anyone can cook. I’m going to JWU to learn how to be the best. Anyone can just open a cook book and follow a recipe but not everyone can be a chef in an exotic five star restaurant that grosses millions of dollars a year. I look forward to mastering the art.

I probably won’t start to blog regularly until school starts. I will primarily be writing about what it’s like living the life of a “culinarian” and I will be posting recipes for all kinds of great dishes that I will be making daily. I’m no J.K. Rowling but I’ll try and make this as entertaining (but from the heart) as possible.  So stay tuned on the start to my adventure.