Hello all! I have been working hard lately and have been unable to post about my exciting adventures. But I did warn you on my previous post that this could happen so you can't get mad :)
I have completed my first 3 weeks at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and feel great. Next week, a new batch of students will be starting so I am no longer the newbie! Here is the low down of what I have done at the CIA thus far:
Week 1: Orientation.
So if you ask most if not all CIA students about orientation, they will warn you that your ears will be talked off and you will drown in a sea of information. Yes, this is true, there is A LOT of information. HOWEVER, it is information that you will be glad that you have so listen up! It is mentally draining to listen to several speakers for eight or so hours a day, but believe me, you will get past it. :) Day 1 involved some pre schedule testing and registration. We got out ID cards, parking permits, mailbox keys, etc etc.
Our ID card is very important! This card allows me to get into the gated parking area, lets me into the Rec Center, AND is my meal swiper. Through my tuition, there is a mandatory meal plan you must pay for. This pays for 2 meals a day, which you use your ID card to get. You get your meals from a student kitchen in Roth Hall (The main building). I always use my 2 swipes for lunch and dinner because they have a continental breakfast every morning. This is like the breakfasts you find in hotels (yogurt, bagels, muffins, cut fruit, whole fruit, cold cereal, waffles). This is PLENTY for me, so I don't waste my swipe for breakfasts.
Here was the meal plan during orientation week (M-F) Breakfast was optional; being off campus I decided just to have breakfast at home until I learned of the AMAZING continental breakfast my second week. Lunch and dunner were both in the East Dining Hall. This is not the typical dining hall the students eat in. We eat in Farquarson Hall; a HUGE room that looks like the dining hall in Hogwarts (not kidding). The East Dining hall is in another building and is a 3 course meal. This dining hall is actually a class for students to learn to waitstaff. To ensure that the students have people to practice on, they have the orientation students come in. The service takes up to 2 hours so you have to be patient, but my god it is worth it. I remember my very first appetizer and I will never forget it. The appetizer was a puff pastry with green beans and mushrooms in a mushroom cream sauce. At first I was very skeptical because I am not a fan of mushrooms; I love them now. I could have eaten everyone's appetizer it was so good! A main course follows, and then a dessert. The meals were very nice and the service was promising.
Now back to Day 1: After lunch we partook in 'Team Building'. This was a very summer campy part of the orientation but pretty fun. I connected with a few of my fellow baking students and some culinary students. Afterwards we recieved a time to gather out loaner jacket and the rest of out uniforms. My loaner jacket was HUGE so they fit me in a smaller size for my embroidered jackets that I would recieve on week 2.
Day 2:
A lot of lecture and a lot of food :)
Day 3:
For Baking students, this was a day off. Culinary students had Friday off.
Days 4 & 5:
I am FINALLY in the kitchen! I meet my Chef, Chef Utera. He is a great guy and I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from him.
WEEK 2:
Week 2 is actually considered the first week, because I am actually in my classes. I am taking: Culinary Math, First Year Seminar, Baking Ingredients and Equipment Technology, Food Jobs, and Baking and Pastry Techniques. The first week of classes is basically an introduction. 'Hi I'm ____, I've been in this industry for X years. This is what we'll be doing....' Don't get me wrong though, I have already had a TON of homework, but it's been a lot of fun.
Baking and Pastry Tech (BP Tech) Week 2: This is my kitchen class, so this will be the one you'll be interested in :)
We started by learning the creaming method (if you want to know what it is, look it up or pay an arm and a leg to come learn it ;) haha). Our first project was chocolate chip cookies. We are teamed up into pairs; my partner's name is Eunhye, but she goes by Jasmine. She and I are a great team so I hope we don't get switched up later on. Jasmine is fairly new at baking so I really enjoy showing her step by step how to do something. This helps me retain the information even better than I had it before. We made approx. 45 cookies but only baked 15 each (30 in all). After baking, we were told to take 12 home for homework... haha sure, homework ;) Don't worry, I shared!
Week 3:
This week is a short week because of the Holiday weekend so we have Friday off. Because of this, we put two days into one for BP Tech. Today (Thursday) we continued our creaming method practice by making Marble Pound cake, Steusel Pound cake, and blueberry muffins. We also touched on the Blending method by making corn muffins. Jasmine and I did very well and finished our baking before dinner time! After dinner Chef went through each team and cut into one of each muffin and each pound cake to critique the insides. Our corn muffins had a bit of tunneling (air trapped) and the blueberries weren't completely distributed evenly, but all in all we did well :)
For one of our homework assignments we have to pipe using piping gel. Our first assignment was to pipe 10 straight lines, 10 wavy lines, and 'Happy Birthday'. This sounds easy, but you'd be surprised. We also had to make a marzipan rose. This is due at the beginning of every class (thurs and fri).
So far I am holding on and am not overwhelmed. I am having a lot of fun and am learning so much. Also, I have been expanding my palate by trying new things during lunch and dinner. Since I've been here I've tried: Duck, Duck Confit, mussels/clams, and some other things. It's been great so far so I am excited to see what's next!
Sorry about the lengthy post! I am trying to give as much info as I can!! :)
Megan
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