November 22, 2020
Beginnings
We all remember high school, long mornings, bus rides, annoying classes, young love and more. Eleanor Roosevelt high school is where my culinary journey escalated, I was always interested in cooking as far as I can remember though. It was here during my junior year that I took nutrition as an elective, almost everyone was excited to take this class -I thought they all liked to cook too- because of the fact that they got to eat. I was the one person in this class that actually wanted to go somewhere with cooking. I even signed up to take the class twice a day…. I chose nutrition over P.E my junior year, that says a lot.
The students in my group literally would let me do all/majority of the cooking so they could eat the masterpiece after (which I had no problem with). Back in this time I would look at the recipes we were assigned to cook, then use my phone under the desk to look at ideas to make it better than the recipe would have it to be. I remember one class when we had to make some type of baked dish in a casserole pan and after taking it out I thought “let me cool this down with some water so we can clean it and not be late to our next class” and Boom, we now have broken glass in the sink and all over the floor, one second I was holding the glass pan and the next I was holding nothing. For those who may not know, the drastic change from hot to cold will cause glass to explode.
One of the main reasons nutrition led me to culinary is the fact that literally, what you eat plays a role in your health. I found that so interesting, and there are people dying for good food that fits their dietary restrictions. As nerdy as it sounds, imagine serving people who are lacking iron, and since most places cook all the nutrients out of their food from over cooking and frying they need a place that serves healthy, yet delicious food that is beneficial to them. At this moment in time I was torn between becoming a chef or a dietitian.
Eventually The teacher also recognized that I had a thing or two for cooking and recommended that I get a degree at PGCC (which I cannot wait to share stories about). Thank you all for reading my first blog, the next stories coming will be amazing,
Have a blessed day.
Culinary Class Starts
In today’s blog I am going to share with you guys what it was like starting my culinary classes at Prince Georges community college (PGCC). In my first semester, the fall of 2017 I was enrolled in “Introduction to Culinary arts” and my general classes. I was so excited for classes to start,
Food Production 1
In today’s blog I am going to share some stories of my second culinary class after finishing introduction to culinary arts. This was a very exciting, yet slightly sad time. This semester the new culinary arts center was being built on the main campus of the college, and it was a huge step up from where we were currently taking classes. Although we couldn’t see the classrooms or the complete interior of the new building, you could just tell how amazing it was.
My First Practical Final Exam
It is May 1st of 2018, the day of our practical final. None of us knew how the exam would go, how much time would we get, are we cooking a dish from the textbook, is it a group project etc. When we arrived in the kitchen, we found out that our practical final was going to be like the cooking show Chopped. Meaning that our instructor got to choose random ingredients that we had to incorporate into our dish,
Grand Opening
This is the moment all of us culinary students were waiting for. We have been watching it be built from the ground up as we commuted from culinary classes to the main campus for other classes every week. We would hear our professors glamorizing all of the features that this new building would have like state of the art cooking equipment, revamped classrooms, a beautiful lobby where you can study, three kitchens.
Post Grand Opening
As the title implies, this event I am going to divulge into happened shortly after the spectacular grand opening of the new cilinary center. If you have not read my previous blog about it, you should go and check that out before reading this one.
April 20, 2018. The day after the grand opening, there was to be a friendly competition between the Chinese master chefs and our instructors.
The Wine Kitchen (Restaurant Review)
Hello reader, today’s blog post is going to be a little different. Instead of a blog about my past in culinary school, I am going to share a very recent dining experience my wife and I had. I had always planned to eventually do restaurant reviews too, so here goes my first one.
Advanced Baking Begins
Over the break awaiting the next semester I had been working on my craft big time. I was cooking a lot more, working on my knife skills, technique, plating style and overall knowledge. When school started back up I would be enrolled in advanced baking, although I was not much of a baker.
Advanced Baking (Continued)
Back into baking class, In this weeks class we were going to be creating pastry and dessert components. These pastry components are the bases of desserts that can be altered and prepared in many different ways to create numerous traditional and contemporary desserts.
Punjab Grill DC
Today’s blog is going to be about an experience at ‘Punjab Grill’ in DC. Punjab Grill is a fine dining Indian restaurant that is Royal-inspired by a traditional Punjabi restaurant. I wanted to take my wife out to eat at Jose Andres’ Zaytinya but they were fully booked that night, so I kept on looking for something upscale and found this place. After looking online at their site, we saw that they had an interesting tasting menu. The way things were vaguely described made you curious to how it tasted or was presented. We set our reservation for July 31st.
Food Production 2
This was one of my final cooking classes I would be taking, and looking through the syllabus it was going to be a fun learning experience for most. Until we heard news that our instructor from ‘Intro Culinary arts’, the same one who put so much work into getting the new culinary building on the ground, got injured and would not be teaching that semester. So we got a new instructor, Chef Raymond…
Food Production 2 (Cont)
Here is another memory I have from my Food Production 2 class. It is taking place in October of 2018. I am making lamb for the first time ever. Grilled lamb at that. Since there weren’t much students in this class, we usually each got to make dishes ourselves. No partner to bicker with about how much salt, or pepper to use.
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