Time out. woops!

So I dropped the ball on this blog. Forgive me, I’ve had a lot going on these past few months, I didn’t even have time to take care of my crops on Farmville. I realize I haven’t even finished my Philippines posts (I have a draft on Cebu waiting to be edited and posted), but I’m going to fast forward to what I’ve been up to now. Might as well finish this year fast and strong and start off 2010 right by posting regularly.

Hitting the books..and ranges

Honestly, I'm happy, but it's 7:30 AM.

In late September, I began taking classes at the new Le Cordon Bleu in Cambridge. To supplement my bachelors, I’m pursuing an A.O.S. in Culinary Arts and a Le Cordon Bleu diploma. The program takes two years, but since it’s accelerated, I’ll finish by next December with very limited vacation time. I take both kitchen classes and general education classes (whatever didn’t transfer from BC). Courses run for three weeks at a time, five days a week, 7am-12pm daily. Uniform compliance and attendance can be so strict that a Chef can throw you out of class if you step one foot out of line. The student body, composed mostly of local residents, ranges from recent high school graduates to middle-aged adults looking for a career change. Some have been working in the restaurant industry for years, others have never stepped foot in a commercial kitchen. I am a career-changer (though I never started my first one), with some experience with food production. I met some awesome people at school, started the painful process of covering my hands with cuts and burns but showing them off with pride, and took great classes such as Wine and Beverage. I finished my first two Skills classes which covered basic cooking principles and am looking forward to my first baking class. Mmmm….hot sticky dough…

Just a few of the dishes I made during skills 2:

Roasted Chicken w/gravy, Seared Winter Veggies, Green Bean Almondine

Seared Duck Breast w/Orange Gastrique, Sauteed Spinach, Orange Bulgar Pilaf

Grilled Rack of Lamb w/veal stock redux, Carrots Etouffee

Worky work, busy bee

Living in Boston is wicked expensive. You’re very lucky if you can rent a room for anything less than $600/mo (not including utilities), and if you want to partake in the nightlife each weekend, get ready to spend much more than a pretty penny. To make ends meet and to gain more industry experience, I held down two jobs and worked seven days a week. On the weekends, I was a personal cook at a Newton residence, cooking dinner for ten very nice women. I’m a one person staff in charge of putting out a five-course family-style dinner, from prep to clean-up. It’s hard work for a noob like me, but it’s great practice and experience. On the weekdays, I was a temp worker for BC dining, working as a buffet server for the priests at St. Mary’s. As boring as the job description sounds, it was actually a great time. The priests were a hoot! Most were very nice, some were kind of intimidating. It was “un placer” to work with the buffet and kitchen staff, who were mostly of  Hispanic and Latin American backgrounds. Working with them helped me a lot with my Spanish, which I feel (and most would agree) is a necessary skill to have when working in the US restaurant industry (at LCB we’re taught French. Silly, no?).

Jan 2010

I start the year easy by taking 3 weeks of art. LCB decided that my painting and anime classes I took at BC doesn’t qualify for an accelerated survey of art class. Whatever. I’ll only be holding down my cooking job on the weekdays to give myself more time to focus on a new endeavor. Mid-January I’ll begin pursuing a Masters in Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at BU. Hooray! I’ve wanted to participate in this program since my freshman year at BC. I realize I’m taking on a lot, and I’m somewhat intimidated by it all already, but I couldn’t be more excited for it. Do you know that feeling you get when you’re crazy giddy that your ass feels like it’s shaking right off to lead you in a square dance? Yea, that’s how I feel about next month.

I’ll randomly post the rest of Philippines sometime soon.