Culinary School : Month One

Exhausted, sore, perpetually full and loving every minute. I officially have one month of culinary school under my belt. I am learning more than I ever expected, from knife skills, the importance of quality ingredients, proper cooking techniques and new flavor profiles. 

Just like the first day of high school or college, your first day at a new job, culinary school is no different. I laid out my outfit the night before, slept a total of 20 minutes and attempted to Google search the class roster. To say the least the nerves were kicking in. The first day was “syllabus day,” understanding the lay of the land in an attempt to prepare us for the whirlwind experience ahead. 

Once the jitters faded away, uniforms on and knife set in hand, shit got real. Every day we were flooded with information, starting with the basics of identifying different foods and how to work with them, to basic knife skills and proper food handling. In the beginning, all 14 of us were silent as we awkwardly found our way around the kitchen, shy to season with salt or deviate from the recipes we were given. But as the weeks progressed we warmed up to each other, our environment and the idea that our feet will always be sore and our stomachs full. (I mean how are you supposed to know if you are cooking something correctly if you don’t try everyone’s attempt at the perfect vegan burger? Or chocolate soufflé?!).  To say the least, the past month has been thrilling, inspirational and better than anything I could have expected.