Superficial Burns: Culinary School Never Hurt So Good

Thanks!

2008-10-03T17:44:00.002-04:00

Thanks for visiting Superficial Burns - I've moved to a new location where I will continue my rantings and ravings on all things food and share some details about my life as I finish my master of liberal arts in gastronomy (and food studies - which was recently added to the program's name!).Please visit me at ConsumingLilly.com, I look forward to seeing you there!

taptaptap is this thing on?

2008-08-26T20:43:00.004-04:00

I'm currently thinking about doing some revamps to the blog - maybe starting over, since I'd like to move into a different direction with it. It started as a blog to satisfy the assignment that came with my culinary school education. We were required to keep a diary of our experience so that we could reflect on what we learnt. I'm glad that we were made to do it, because so many days went by in a

Quick Puff Paste

2008-08-12T11:22:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make: I rarely cook proper meals anymore. By proper, I mean the meals that are planned days in advance. I've never been the kind of girl that puts a whole lot of effort into meals (strange to say, I know) - I'm scrappy in that I can whip up a great meal with an almost empty pantry and fridge, but give me a well-stocked kitchen and I'm a little lost for options.That being

Fourth of July Cuisine

2008-08-03T23:24:00.001-04:00

It's a pretty universal truth that the fourth of July has some of the greatest childhood memories for American raised kids. Fireworks, hot summers, watermelon wedges, ice cream, barbecues... there's absolutely no downside when you're seven and have weeks until school starts again and endless possibilities because of your hot wheels (in my case, a pimp bike).In my case, I was able to revisit my

Cheese Day! in Vermont

2008-07-28T18:25:00.003-04:00

I took a Cheese course earlier this year for school, it was a two-credit class that met once a week for two months (or so). Every week, Ihsan Gurdal of Fromaggio Kitchen, would bring in 13 different cheeses of a particular theme (goat milk, cow's milk, washed-rind, natural rind, blue, etc) and we'd power through them all trying to learn something about the most peculiar foodstuffs there ever

Hey food bloggers! Call for papers...

2008-07-16T08:33:00.006-04:00

What better a place to promote a symposium on food AND the web than on my food-obsessed blog? Sweet harmony! I'd LOVE to see some of you there, especially the local guys!Foodies on The Web: A Symposium on Food and New MediaJanuary 30 - 31, 2009, Boston UniversityMany have argued that the Internet and the arrival of Web 2.0 (if there is such a thing) have created new forms of web-based community

Excuses

2008-07-07T22:42:00.002-04:00

I've been totally slack lately in getting up some blog posts. There's really no excuse for it, but if there WAS, I'd submit the following:- Summer school is a lot more time consuming than I had originally thought- I was totally slammed at work and needed to get loads of things done before I left for a week- I spent a week in France and an internet connection in the hotel was far too expensive-

Review: Winchester Country Club

2008-06-08T10:12:00.001-04:00

In the big picture of life, I generally think it's the little things that matter, because the big things are beyond your control. With that in mind, I will dedicate this entire blog post to the wonder of Chef Charles Grandon's cooking, because although it may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, it's the least I can do for his generosity and thoughtfulness this weekend.Back story: For my

Guest blog: Pigs in a blanket

2008-06-01T18:20:00.004-04:00

I've been crazy busy lately and feeling a little overwhelmed, so I tasked my other half to do some guest blogging for me this week. I'm happy to say that Jason happily stepped up and stayed true to himself by making things that are quintessentially part of who he is... so first up in his guest blogging: pigs in a blanket.===============================================I always have enjoyed good

Coquilles St. Jacques au vin blanc

2008-05-26T20:51:00.009-04:00

Summer classes have officially begun for Boston University and while part of me is wondering if I should have taken the summer off to just enjoy life a little, part of me is excited about cooking for homework. It's a new experience and part of what drew me to the gastronomy program at BU. As one of my clients loves to say, ONWARDS!So after finishing up last semester's food economics and policy

Empanadas

2008-05-18T11:11:00.005-04:00

While there are a number of things that make me happy, on the top of that list includes two things: delicious and portable food items, and, excessively long and detailed wikipedia entries on random things. Based on those two requirements, it's little surprise that I would fall madly in love with empanadas.What made this even better for me was that the whole time I was working with the dough, I

Review: Lumiere

2008-05-11T12:17:00.001-04:00

Jessica Simpson is a funny singer. Pop culture judgments aside, she began as a very disciplined technical singer: good range, on pitch, correct breathing. But she's missing something fundamental. Maybe she'll figure out that imperfection and character makes for a stronger entertainer, Britney may not be the best singer, but girl can put on a show. But what does this have to do with dinner?Well,

Penang Curry

2008-05-04T21:05:00.001-04:00

When I was watching Top Chef last week where the challenge was to make a dinner for four with only $10. I couldn't help but think how easy the challenge is because I do it just about every day. Of course, I'm not trying to impress Tom Colicchio (or any of the other judges - I don't remember them by name because they're kind of sucky) or trying to cook with a very young and inexperienced sous

Zha jiang mian (Meat Sauce Noodles)

2008-04-27T22:18:00.005-04:00

I don't think I could function without noodles in my life. They're extraordinarily versatile, comforting and satisfying all at once and have made my life a far happier place since I was very little. I was always particularly fond of the northern Chinese noodle dish, zha jiang mian, which is a sort of Chinese spaghetti bolognase (strangely, I've never been a huge fan of actual spaghetti bolognase)

Banana Tarte Tatin

2008-04-13T21:42:00.004-04:00

I love tart tatin something wrong. It's not hard to understand why, after all, puff paste, fruit and caramelized sugars are the building blocks of deliciousness.The tart tatin recipe that I (very begrudgingly) follow is from the pastry chef instructor that came in to teach us last semester. She wasn't a bad chef, but she was always harried, rushed and uninterested in us -- it was clear she was

Jan Can Too

2008-04-06T20:43:00.004-04:00

I spent a great afternoon in Rhode Island this weekend watching Chef Martin Yan do a cooking demo at Johnson & Wales University. I've never tried anything of his, but I've watched his shows for years and years and was definitely looking forward to watching him in person and hearing his distinctive accent live.He touched on a few topics of Chinese cuisine that I'd always wanted to learn more about

Hong shao rou

2008-03-30T19:19:00.010-04:00

Throughout the eighties, my Mom was on a diet. It wasn't always the same ridiculous diet but it seemed similar enough for me to question my mom's sanity -- why struggle so painfully for something that's just not going to happen? It wasn't until she moved to Hong Kong and away from some of the unhealthy body image surrounding her that she would occasionally allow herself to eat something fatty.

Coq Au Vin

2008-03-23T22:04:00.001-04:00

I'd had crappy coq au vin a couple times in my life before I'd embarked on becoming a "serious" foodie. I didn't think much of it because really, the concept of chicken cooked in wine was ridiculous and weird to me. I'm almost certain I'm not alone in that belief. I was very excited, however, that we'd be doing in class last year, because I'd never known how to make it and had always assumed it

So you wanna be a food blogger... ?

2008-03-21T17:06:00.002-04:00

To be honest, I'm a little torn. I don't know if I really want to be a food blogger. I'm lazy and lack the commitment needed to post as often as possible. My deep-rooted laziness is tragic, really, it forces me to sometimes go that extra day without a shower or hours and hours without food, even though I'm really hungry. On the other hand, I'm clearly content to do little in a day and if I was a

Moving on...

2008-03-03T19:02:00.003-05:00

Now that I've completed the culinary arts program:I don't have to actually keep this blog, but I think I will. Expect a bunch of random posts about food that I'm cooking, eating and/or otherwise consumed with (pun not intended, but greatly enjoyed). I'll probably also pontificate randomly on food to make myself think I'm smart or you know, well-versed on the topic, but don't worry, personal "

The perfect meal?

2007-12-12T21:47:00.004-05:00

Our challenge for final project was to make a three course meal in three hours out of anything we want. We were given a list of items that we would be allowed to use out of the kitchen's pantry, but any additional items we wanted to use had to be purchased with our own money. I was reluctant to rely on many of the items on the list because I was going towards the end of the day and there was no

Mini!

2007-12-11T20:50:00.000-05:00

We had a little bit of a hectic day today, I think we all had a little confusion about what was supposed to happen in terms of graduation, etc. We were all anticipating that all the dessert we made today would be saved for graduation and served only then, unfortunately, I don't think Janine knew our plans so it was a little difficult to communicate what needed to be done at a different stage when

A Complete Bite

2007-12-07T09:24:00.001-05:00

We'd started the day meeting at Eastern Standard talking with Garrett Harker learning about the business-side of starting a restaurant. It was so interesting to really learn about getting the businesses started, particularly from a non-cook person with that point of view. Most specifically, I was glad to be able to ask a bit about the brainstorm and development process during the initial idea

Woooooooo bacon!

2007-12-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

Raymond Ost of Sandrine's came in today to give us a little demonstrate Alsatian cuisine. He was a warm, friendly, really great guy and genuinely seemed to love cooking and food. He also seemed to be a dedicated chef, particularly given his very traditional apprentice-style training.Although he had a limited amount of time, demonstrated three great dishes. The first and second dishes were sort of

"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." -- Mark Van Doren

2007-12-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

I’ve never been more disappointed in the program than I was today. I’m fairly certain I don’t feel alone in this either because a few of us talked about why we were so disappointed. To clarify, I’m not talking about the morning session about food writing, I thought that was pretty interesting and thought Ms. Copps to be a very energetic and animated person, so this morning was a lot of fun.

Italian food, day three: Mary Ann and Guy Esposito

2007-12-03T22:51:00.000-05:00

Maybe there's something in the air, or maybe it's a combination of the snow and cabin fever, but everyone was in a very strange mood today. Some were short-tempered, some were a little wacky, but I think everyone felt that things were a little off today. Luckily, Mary Ann and Guy were late from the snowy roads and didn't have to watch us learn to tie our shoes again.There weren't too many recipes

Cucina del Sole - another celebration of more food...

2007-11-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

I was really unimpressed with today's cook, demonstration and recipes. While I'm sure that Nancy Harmon Jenkins is a great writer (I can't make any comments otherwise, I've never read anything she's written), she's an appallingly bad cook with bad recipes.We cooked a lot of food today, under her supervision, for the evening demo on her new book regaling the joys of southern Italian cuisine,

We failed Jody Adams.

2007-11-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

We had a great day with Jody Adams of Rialto, even though it was the first time in class history we didn't finish, we were all so disappointed. To be fair, it wasn't completely realistic that we would finish in time, after all, each team was doing all of the menus and we got off to a slightly late start because Jody was stuck in traffic. That being said, I still think we did well, tried our best

Beaujolais Nouveau

2007-11-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

I was reminded again today why JJ has to be one of my favorite personalities, cooking or otherwise. There's something so lovably pompous about his Frenchy-ness it's really rather endearing. JJ returned for something I'm sure is near and dear to his heart, Beaujolais nouveau. And I was thrilled to see coq au vin on the menu, I'd be devastated if we'd completed this entire course in classic French

Chinese food and Chinesesque food

2007-11-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

I've been looking forward to Chinese food day for a long time. I was hoping to learn some fundamentals about Chinese cuisine that I probably already knew, but didn't know I know... you know? I had hoped today would be one big "ah ha!" moment for me.I really enjoyed listening to Helen Chen this morning. I thought she was a great teacher and gave us a helpful overview of Chinese ingredients, and

Menu creation isn't for the weak!

2007-11-20T18:55:00.001-05:00

Joe Carlin came in today for a little lecture on food and cookbook history in the US. Although he could be a little dry at times, I enjoyed the lecture and the sample recipes he brought along so we could see how cooking styles have changed.As someone in the gastronomy program, I'm always wondering what others do with their interest in food. Some graduates, like the Modern Food Issues guy, haven't

Foaming at the mouth!

2007-11-19T21:31:00.000-05:00

I don't feel like I did any cooking today, it felt more like I was back in high school chemistry playing around with stuff, only difference is we got to eat our creations. Jason Santos came in to teach us a little about molecular gastronomy, a subject that a lot of the chefs have had strong opinions on, with most of them agreeing that its 'stupid' (to paraphrase). While I see their point, I still

Frenchness with Jacques & Jean-Claude

2007-11-16T18:53:00.000-05:00

The anticipation at the beginning of this week was enough for everyone to be a little on edge. The big day had finally arrived and I think a lot of us were questioning our skills and whether we felt good enough to be preparing a meal where guests paid $500 a head. I couldn't help but wonder how realistic the pricing was, after all, the most expensive set menu in America was $400 at Masa in New

Sugar-overload ... two days in a row.

2007-11-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

We spent Wednesday and Thursday working with Cindy this week, beginning with pies and ending with all things chocolate. Between pastries with Janine and two days of baking with Cindy, it's a lot of sugar we're having this week.We started Wednesday with a quick lecture about the properties and types of pies that can be made. I'd never really thought about pies in such depth before, but I suppose

Fudgy, delicious brownies with Janine

2007-11-07T00:05:00.000-05:00

Today with Janine was fantastic, I really felt like we did a great day of baking and we used all sorts of different techniques to create each of the final products. And, as always, it's good to see a culinary arts graduate and see where they've gone and where they are now.The morning started well, I think Janine is a great teacher. She was clearly very organized and had planned and researched her

Indian food... with the executive chef of Au Bon Pain?

2007-11-05T22:06:00.001-05:00

I seriously wonder if this class isn't secretly called "101 Ways to Break Down a Chicken" sometimes. For every chef we've done chicken which (and that's a good number of them) they've shown us their own technique for breaking down a chicken, who knew there were so many options?I enjoyed today with chef John, he was a good teacher and clearly had a lot of knowledge about Indian cuisine and Indian

Mexican & Nuevo Latino

2007-11-01T21:50:00.000-04:00

We had a decidedly Latin American day today (is that the right term? After the mini-lecture/scolding Leo Romero gave us, I'm nervous about using any term incorrectly or offensively!). We started with a morning lecture and demonstration on regional Mexican cuisines, their origins and a short history and culture lesson on ethnic sensitivity.I think the most compelling part of Leo's lecture this

Puff, the magic pastry

2007-10-31T23:49:00.000-04:00

Finally! The conclusion of the puff paste day. Cindy said that it's best to let puff paste set up overnight, and that was about a week ago, so we're ready to use the puff we've made and see what happens.We did two things with the puff paste today, we made fruit tarte tatins and napoleons, both use puff pastries, but because they're applied in such different ways, we got to see bake off the puff

Oleana & Siena Farms

2007-10-30T01:48:00.000-04:00

Demo day with Ana Sortun of Oleana! I wasn't sure what to expect because I was familiar with Oleana's flavor profile and menu, so I was surprised to see the recipes for today having a distinctly Middle Eastern slant. Although I had lots of Turkish and Armenian friends in college, we never really ate it much because it wasn't easy to find in Boston. I guess we just missed Ana's opening of Oleana

Liquid gold (a.k.a. olive oil?)

2007-10-26T15:56:00.001-04:00

I haven't been feeling great lately, I'm feeling very tired and beat down lately and I can't understand why. I don't think I'm coming down with anything because I have no obvious symptoms other than fatigue, but my head is definitely cloudy lately. I still wanted to try and make it through the day though...We all met at 10am at Taberna de Haro on Beacon St for a morning of learning about the

Strudel & Puff Pastry

2007-10-24T15:55:00.000-04:00

We spent the morning learning about gluten development in doughs because we would be working with two types of dough that were depended on gluten's two proteins gliadin and glutenin to give it structure and strength. By combining flour and water and kneading it, we produced a very simple dough and if we washed away the starch surrounding it, we could see and sort of manipulate the webbing created

Sushi? At these prices!? Meshugeh to ask so much for a nosh, they are!

2007-10-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

We explored two very different food ideologies today, so it felt a little disjointed, but at the end of the day, I felt very clean.In the morning we were able to go BU's Hillel House and discuss kosher and take a tour of the kitchens at the Hillel House. I'd always had a rough idea about what kosher meant, I knew the basic rules of no pork, no meat and dairy together, etc. But the laws

Socially aware & comfortable food

2007-10-22T15:54:00.000-04:00

Today was one of my favorite days of the course (at least, so far). We covered two topics near and dear to my fat little heart: socially responsible eating and Southern food. :)Jason Ryan was a graduate of the master's program I'm attending and it was good to see someone who had gone through the program and hear a little about it. He explained that one of the classes left a huge impression on him

I can be punny too

2007-10-18T18:22:00.000-04:00

We mixed up the schedule a little today and exchanged a day of food writing and Southern food for a day of flavors and menus with John. I really enjoyed today, although I had been excited for food writing and Southern food, because it gave us a chance to slow down and be more traditional students.We started the day with a quick discussion about how flavors can influence a dish and why its

Breaking bread for a little peace

2007-10-17T18:22:00.000-04:00

Today was a difficult day. There were definite moments of awkwardness which were a bit distracting, I think.We did break making today, with a couple from Connecticut. He is a bread maker and owns his own bakery (I think). She was one of the writers for a baking textbook, On Baking, and gave us an overview in the morning about the different types ingredients and techniques used when making breads.

Harvey, Max Harvey. Fish dude.

2007-10-16T18:40:00.001-04:00

We did so much today, I couldn't even believe it all when I looked over the list. We must have eaten hundreds of dollars worth of seafood. Max Harvey is the "fish guy" for the Summer Shack and a graduate of the culinary arts (not gastronomy) program. I always enjoy meeting people that have come out of the program because it gives us a glimpse into what we can get into in the future (assuming of

Cambodian Power Brunch

2007-10-15T18:37:00.000-04:00

Today was a weird food day, because as much as I love all Asian cuisine, I don't know how many times in life I can really handle fish sauce first thing in the morning. Obviously it wasn't actually first thing in the morning, but given how late I wake up these days, it might as well have been.We started with a Cambodian food demo with one of the owners of the Elephant Walk, Nadsa de Monteiro. I

Restaurant Day

2007-10-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Oof.Today was one of the best and longest days we've had since the start of the program. It was a great day for us to really test our skills and become our own cooks. I think we were able to really see how we work together as a group and give us a sense of our overall skill sets and our ability to trust each other.Even though the menu had a good range of cooking techniques and touched on all the

Little Miss Muffett...

2007-10-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

We had a full day of dairy planned today starting with an extremely early cheese and wine tasting with John, an afternoon of eggs and an evening of more cheese. Too bad I missed most of it because I had to go to the emergency room and convince doctors and nurses that I really did injure myself making a souffle.At least I made it though the morning. John gave an interesting lecture about cheese,

Morimoto yelled at me :)

2007-10-10T21:17:00.000-04:00

We had the great chance to work with Masuharu Morimoto today. I think most people only know him from his Iron Chef fame in the US, but he's a restaurateur and has a lot of knowledge of other cuisines, including Chinese and American. We were definitely all nervous and excited abut the day, but I think most of us were worried out skills hadn't come far enough along yet.And because we weren't

Starches! Starches! We don't need no steenking starches!

2007-10-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

We started the morning with Michael not talking about this afternoon's class but rather about taking care of your knife. Since we've started school, Chef's have emphasized that each one of them will have a different idea of how things should be done. So far, most of the chefs have agreed on their cooking techniques and styles with little conflict, except when it comes to knives.Everyone of them

Clam Bake!

2007-10-04T20:38:00.000-04:00

Gaaaaah! What a great day! I'm a big fan of clam bakes, there's something so quintessentially New England about them, and I've missed the east coast culture so much the past three years while temporarily displaced in San Francisco. In fact, I've been all jazzed up about them again since I was reading Jacques Pepin's book and he describes an amazing clam bake in Long Island. It reminded me of my

"It's a veg-e-ta-ble!"

2007-10-03T19:33:00.000-04:00

I was so glad to finally get to vegetable day today. I don't think my body can process that much meat on such a consistent rate. It was definitely time for a little change up to the menu because I could feel that my body needed the break. Although, having now cooked everything, I'm realizing it wasn't much of a break at all since everything was cooked in obscene amounts of butter. Oy.We started

ServSafe Finale & Frying

2007-10-02T19:21:00.000-04:00

Today was our ServSafe exam... a fairly useless exam in terms of what its trying to test us on. The questions were varied from the ridiculous:What is the best way to dry your hands after washing:a) wipe you hands on your apronb) use a single-use paper towelc) shake them vigorously in the aird) wipe them on your clothes.(This was a real question, seriously!)... to the randomly difficult and

Mortadella Pinata

2007-10-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

Oh sweet mother. I've never been more grateful for our later class times than today. Because I learnt today that handling and making force meats and sausages is (1) not an appropriate early morning activity for me and (2) still disgusting and messy after lunch and coffee. Thankfully, Charles eased us into it by giving us a nice morning intro explaining about brines, cures and other flavoring

Days with JJ (Poaching & Simmering)

2007-09-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

I was sad to learn that today was our last class with JJ for a while. He's got to be one of the best food personalities in the world. He's very funny and very French (in a good way, I swear) and an amazing chef.At first, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't think he'd be a great chef. I based this horribly incorrect assumption on the idea that he had worked for Legal Seafoods, a chain that I would

Italian food (via Greek and Irish ancestry)

2007-09-27T01:08:00.000-04:00

We started late today to compensate for the late night we would have working with the chef-owners of Al Forno. It turned out to be a really fun day, working and cooking in a kitchen is more fun when there are real people enjoying the fruits of your labor. It was also a good break from the daily schedule of classes, particularly since we were able to ask them questions about the restaurant

Garnishing for a slow, painful death

2007-09-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today may have been one of the worse days ever there was. It was epically bad. It's the kind of painful day that I'll recount to my kids and their kids. It was just dreadful.It's started positively enough (maybe that's why the negative twist in the afternoon seemed so much worse) with JJ and garnishing. It was so much fun to take food a little less seriously than we had since starting school and

Mmmm... meaty, saucy goodness

2007-09-24T22:13:00.001-04:00

Today was a nice return to the format I've been so accustomed too. Unfortunately, three members of the class were out today, making for an faster kitchen but also a emptier one. I've been particularly looking forward to saute and roasting day for a while now because I'm quite the adept roaster and would like some techniques to improve my skill and final product.I like to roast chickens every week

Stewing in disconnectedness

2007-09-21T00:48:00.000-04:00

Today was a tough day in the kitchen. I had woken up feeling like the world and I were functioning on clocks three minutes apart, and I felt the same way throughout the day. Adding to my general confusion and cloudy-headedness was a change of teacher. I find it hard to adapt to a new teacher at the beginning of a class, when I'm still learning basics. It was a little weird on Monday when Charles

The Heat of the Grill ... and celebrity.

2007-09-20T01:43:00.000-04:00

Because lecturing about grilling and broiling was non-sensical to chef John today, we ended up talking about various questions we'd accummulated over the past few days and we all discuss one particular article in the Sunday Boston Globe Magazine about the price of food relative to the price of a menu item.It was an interesting discussion and one where it was clear that each person in the class

A dry dry day...

2007-09-18T23:08:00.000-04:00

Today started with a ServSafe class with John, possibly the driest person alive. The entire time he was talking I wasn't sure if he was being very very very dry and sarcastic or if he was just being himself. I kept feeling like I should be laughing, but I didn't just in case. He just had the strangest sense of humor.Regardless, the morning dragged on because all he basically did was reread the

Everything in mooo-deration?

2007-09-17T23:02:00.000-04:00

Today was a bit of a change from the last week, but it's good. I think the class is starting to gel has a whole and we're starting to get each other's quirks. Everyone has said that we have worked extremely well together as a class. I find this really surprising. Not because I expected there to be some huge problems in the class, but because I never thought that a group of people in a class to

Don't get saucy with me... Bernaise!

2007-09-14T00:15:00.000-04:00

I have a new found respect for Sunday brunch line cooks. As I write, I'm in crippling pain after making a hollandaise today. Who knew it required to much work? I was so cramped up from the whisking that when it came to seasoning I couldn't move my hand out of the claw-like position I had cramped into during whisking! I felt like a mutant. Thank God for a left hand!I was also horrified (and

Soup's On!

2007-09-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

Soup day in the kitchen today and I have a newfound respect for lentil soup. Unfortunately, I've also confirmed my dislike of French onion soup.Chef demo-ed lentil soup for us in the morning which gave us enough time to each have some shortly after lunch. It was really hearty and nutty without being thick or heavy. I've never enjoyed lentil soup, I think in the past I've generally had it

Sous-what? Oh dear...

2007-09-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

I did feel better Tuesday morning, but was nervous since I knew today would be our first day in the kitchen. How would I measure up? I figured we'd take it easy on our first day and the team effort involved in making stocks would allows us all to ease into life in the kitchen. And everything was fine during the morning lecture. We were shown how to hold a knife (I knew I was holding it the '

Master of the Universe! ...or Gastronomy, whatever.

2007-09-10T21:37:00.000-04:00

I started grad school today. A fascinating and eerie return to my alma mater, Boston University. It's always weird when you return to a place that was locked in a very specific time/memory. Everything feels like it should be the same and you crave the familiarity, but yet because you are coming back, you also seek out the new memories. For me, it feels somewhere between a restless dream and a

About Me

2007-07-07T12:03:00.001-04:00