culinary school flashback: the decision

I had been struggling to figure out how to best share all my old blog posts, from when I was in culinary school. My sister mentioned doing a throwback series, making it’s less overwhelming, and way more fun to relive. Not sure why I didn’t think of that 😉, but that is what I am going to do.

A culinary school flashback series … I’ll regularly share an original post from culinary school, in chronological order, so you guys can get a glimpse of my crazy life back then. The only thing I don’t have, which I am pretty bummed about, are the original post dates. That said, I started school in September of 2011.

Let’s kick it off with the very first post about making the decision to quit my awesome job at the time, and starting this new journey.

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the start of it all: the decision

Culinary School! Who would have thought I would actually end up going to culinary school!? It is a thought I have entertained for many years, but always pushed to the back of my mind. I didn’t want to be a chef, right? I couldn’t be a chef, right? I was never that good of a cook, right? Truth is, I have always wanted to be a chef, I have always wanted to learn all there is about knife skills, kitchens, techniques, etc. but never thought I could actually cut it (no pun intended).

After a lot of research, soul-searching, discussions with my husband, and an unbelievable amount of support from my family (in-laws included), I decided to take this leap of faith and give it a shot. I mean, who doesn’t dream of being an amazing cook, whipping up elaborate meals for their friends and family and bringing people happiness through food? I know I do. I have always been that way, so in retrospect the decision of attending culinary school seems like a no brainer to me.

So where am I going? In just a few days will be starting at L’Academie de Cuisine – at the professional facility in Gaithersburg, MD.

It is a 50 week program, filled to the brim with learning. Divided into three phases:

Phase 1 is focused on the theoretical foundation and technical skills that any great cook needs to have. A typical day starts with lectures and cooking demonstrations, before we head into the kitchen. From the get-go we will be preparing 3-4 course meals, which is a bit intimidation

In Phase 2 we start to work in teams and start to refine what we learned in phase 1. That means, we will expand our dish selection (outside of foundational french cooking skills), compete in iron-chef like challenges, as well as get a better feel for and understand the overall operation of a kitchen.

Phase 3 is the Externship! This is when things get very real. It will be up to us to find an externship position (with some guidance) where we will be working on the line. Not only will we be working along great chefs (a min of 35 hours a week), we will continue to have in class sessions to teach us a few last things before we graduate from the program.

Doesn’t this sound exciting, thrilling, nerve-racking, awesome, incredible and scary all at the same time? Here is my list of things I cannot wait for, and a few that scared me!

Exciting:

• Chef coat & checkered pants (picture of me in my new outfit to follow next week )
• Knife set
• Meeting an incredible amount of talented people
• Lots of food!

Daunting:

• Skills/technique exams
• The kitchen
• Knife set
• The hours – classes start at 7am, I have been told all students tend to show up an hour early to set up, and I have an hour commute
• The amounts of food – I will need to make sure to work out A LOT!

I am sure by now you get it: I am excited! But I am also eager to share my journey! I have always loved writing (in college I had my own recipe column in the student newspaper, called ‘Dorm Cooking’ – somewhat cheesy but I shared my 3-5 ingredient recipes with my peers) so I can’t imagine going through this process and not writing about it!

I hope you will enjoy reading about this adventure, the good, the bad and the ugly! And thank you in advance for all the support!

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That was fun to reread!!

Gosh, reflecting back onto the excitement and nervousness, I can truly say that it was a very fun, exhausting, exhilarating and unique experience. I did meet a lot of really great and talented people. Many are still working in the restaurant world now, and some have started their own businesses! The knives … those first few weeks, I cut myself so much, I lost count 😳, but with time I grew confident with how to properly use them. I didn’t gain as much weight as I would have thought, since we were running around working our behinds off, from the moment we entered school, to the moment that we left. And the hours were absolutely exhausting, but if anything, it prepared me for the lack of sleep during motherhood 😉.

Well, stay tuned for more culinary school flashback posts 😀!