Realizing I could have great future opportunities

So since my last post I have volunteered for two different causes. The first was a breakfast for the homeless at Union Station in Pasadena. I had a good time with this, met a few people and got to help out some hungry families. I helped out two days in a row, the first night was prep and the next morning was the actual breakfast. We fed maybe 80 people scrambled eggs with ham, cinnamon rolls and a fruit bowl. We then fed them seconds of whatever we had left. Everyone was extremely grateful and a lot of them came up to talk to us all. I didn’t really learn that much, I just got a few hours towards my iron toque pin and some experience. That was last week, but today I helped out at the Trump National Golf Course, Beer and Wine Festival, in which some of the proceeds went towards benefiting the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and Peninsula Committee Children’s Hospital. It was such a good time. I met new friends, new friends with common interests. I really love the people involved with the culinary profession. You see Gordon Ramsey’s show and expect it to be extremely uptight and stressful in the kitchen. I mean eventually it will, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s just a good time with people hanging out doing what they love. Today the kitchen was packed. I met a girl who was doing her externship at this kitchen. That says to me that this is a great opportunity for me to be there. Out of all the places she could have picked to do her externship, a chance to go out and experience the real world of culinary arts and where I’ve heard you will learn more than you will ever learn during your classes, she chose this kitchen. It wasn’t some soup kitchen in which they let anyone volunteer. I had this opportunity because I am a student of Le Cordon Bleu, College of Culinary Arts. Some of the students got offered externships here while they were working but I didn’t expect that considering how new I am. Speaking of new, I got a new nickname today “fresh-meat.” I got this nickname because apparently I am pretty tough for showing up to volunteer at these things so early. Most people wait until their second term to start getting involved, this way that have at least a little experience, I waited until my second week and so far it hasn’t been a problem. It is scary to sign up for all these things when I don’t know if I’ll get sent home or not for not being able to be a help to them. Usually they find something for me to do though. Today was my first day in a real kitchen and it was so great, I never expected to love a kitchen like this but it was such a great environment to be in. The chefs were singing, everyone was involved and helping each other out. I absolutely loved it. Afterwards we got to walk around and check out what was going on at the festival. Apparently Donald Trump was there, but who really cares about that?

First REAL day

I was going to do a post yesterday about our first REAL day in class but I ended up having too much homework to do it. I would have probably been up until two in the morning had I finished this blog. It wouldn’t have made any sense from my tired brain anyways, and considering this blog isn’t top priority (sorry), I had to let it wait until today. Anyways by “first REAL day” I mean “first real day in the kitchen.” We learned how to hold a knife, which is shown in the picture (notice where my index finger is, and sorry about the serial killer picture lol).

 We learned how to cut, which is with our arm bent 90 degrees at our side and to move our arm back and forth like we were cutting with a saw, and we also learned different cuts. There are a bunch of different names for different cuts and apparently it gets pretty confusing. Chef didn’t put that much priority into teaching us the names of the cuts but I know it will come up a lot in the future. For now we just need to focus on making those cuts. First thing I learned from the day was how to properly or more easily peel a potato/carrot/etc. He taught us that using our peelers up and down instead of just in one direction is easier and less time consuming. We also learned how to mince garlic by either chopping or smashing the clove with the flat side of our knife. Chopping a garlic clove gives you the option to having either chunky garlic or having smaller bits. Smashing will create more mushy garlic and it doesn’t look as nice. I think the main thing we learned this day was that the shape and size of cuts are extremely important when it comes to making a beautiful dish. If you type “Julienne cuts” into Google you’ll see what I mean. After we learned to cut a bit the Chef helped us to better understand our taste palates by making us taste sweet water (boiled and cooled sugar water), salty water (boiled and cooled salt water), umami (boiled and cooled mushroom water), sour (a lemon), and some bitter flavoring that tasted like Dayquil that I wasn’t able to get the name of. We tasted each of these to figure out where our tongue tasted the different flavors.

Orientation

So this blog was my dad’s idea, and this is me testing it out. Gotta be open to new ideas and this really can’t be anything but good for me anyways. Yeah, I have to spend time from my crazy life in my lonely little studio apartment to do this but it will help me keep my writing, typing, and communication with family up, it will also help me to remember what I’ve learned in class that day. There are so many different modes of learning and I feel like this could be a great one. By doing this blog I am basically going to re-teach myself what I learned and at the same time, if anyone wants to read this as well, I’ll be teaching them. I’ve always been told that teaching is the best way to learn. I was trying to find a quote online for this but the closest I could find was “teaching is learning twice.” Though I don’t plan to nor did I ever plan to teach, this is probably what this blog is going to end up doing. Though that wasn’t the point of this blog, I do plan on helping anyone out who needs it back in my hometown, or here in school. So I’ve laid out my whole reasoning for this blog, now it’s time to introduce myself. My name is Shannon. I am from a small town that I always tell people, is near Death Valley. It’s hot and uncomfortable, your clothes will stick to you in the summer and the winter, and fall has ridiculous wind. I recently moved out to Alhambra so I could go to school in Pasadena. I am enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts pursuing a dream in patisserie and baking. I’m not an amazing chef, I’m not even sure if I am supposed to be called a chef or just a baker. At the time being though, that does not matter because I am neither. I bake at home on occasion because it’s a hobby. It’s just an expensive and high calorie hobby. I love to bake though, it is a release from the world, a stress reliever, and it cures any bad emotions I have, and either lets me think or just forget about everything. Baking puts me in a good mood, but at the same time I can stress out and blow-up on anyone who gets in my way. Either way it’s worth it. Getting feedback from anyone who tries your desserts is always nice. Constructive criticism can be hard to come across though. That’s where Le Cordon Bleu is going to make me a great chef. We had orientation today; I received my jacket, pants, cravat, ID, and hat. We learned some rules, some guidelines and we got our schedules and met some chefs. Some of the chefs are Le Cordon Bleu Alumni which is pretty neat. They told us some of their experiences and what they wish someone had told them when they were in school. One of the things the chefs put emphasis on in our experience at Le Cordon Bleu is that we really do need to take in all that the school has to offer. We got told over and over that extracurricular events and activities are something we really should take advantage of. I’m not sure how many people in the room were actually paying that much attention. I personally plan on getting as much done with them as possible. There was a student who told us a bit about the school today as well. He was a really nice, social guy who seemed to know what he was talking about. He was almost done with his schooling and after today he is supposed to move on to his externship. He is doing the associates program though, which is longer. I noticed on his lanyard that he had it loaded up with different pins. He explained the pins and they were all different extracurricular activities in which he was recognized for. Spending specific amounts of hours on community service involving what he’s learned in school, and joining clubs. I want my lanyard to be like his. I already planned on it for experience, but to have those experiences and everything you’ve done for the school wrapped around your neck like a trophy makes me that much more inclined to do it. They told us that future employers come to the school to interview students all the time, and a filled up lanyard is something they love to see. Last thing I’d like to include about today was how important they made networking out to be. I’ve been told this already by friends and people wanting me to succeed, it really does make a lot of sense to meet people and set good impressions. They like a smiling, excited face and that’s all I had on the entire day. It was a fun time and meeting new people with common interests is great. Good thing I have my networking account set up already.