So it’s been a while since I’ve been on here and I think I have a solution to the problem of having a website here. I started this endeavor while going to Culinary school as a documentation of my work there. I see no need to keep it in such a state, as I am no longer attending the School. I graduate this Saturday!!

So, as of now (well, after I graduate) I will be transforming this page into my other area of dedication. Bonsai. Please accept my apologies, as this site goes through changes.

As always, Thank you

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I have been back in school for the past 6 months and working two jobs on the side. One at Carpenter & Main, and the other one in construction. Its been a long hard journey. I’ve gotten closer and closer to leaving for my second internship. I’ve experienced a lot with the past year and a half. New things to see and learn, new experiences, new loves. It’s been quite the trip. Not much into details right now, but I think maybe someday I’ll get the hang of this blogging thing. Not my scene, blogging. I could spend my time better than writing stuff that happens in my everyday life, like living it. So I’m going to go live my life again, See ya soon.

So I’m working the other day; its during service and I get an order for a sundae. Easy enough, I can make one in under a minute. I suddenly remembered that I used the last of the vanilla on the last sundae. So I run down to the chest freezer in the basement and start searching. I look over everything, then I look again, and again. Then it hits me. There is no vanilla ice-cream in house. I run back up to the kitchen and tell Bruce, the head chef. I don’t know if he didn’t believe me, but he left and went down himself to check. He was not pleased to say the least, nor was anyone else. Its not the first time this has happened either. There have been a total of 3 times we have ran out of ice cream flavors. Twice with Vanilla, and once with Coconut. I’m not impressed

So life back in Vermont. The state I love, where I was born and raised, where my family lives. This is my kind of place. Since returning from Nantucket I have been very busy here in Vermont. I have been working 50-60 hours a week at Carpenter & Main, which is nice, it keeps me out of trouble and sane. I have also been donating my time at Camp Billings, a local summer camp located in Fairlee, VT. What can I say, I love kitchens and cooking food. This is what I do.

I also started a catering company with my best friend, “End of The World Catering Co”, and catered a wedding for one of my best friends. This has been one fun summer so far. We did a bunch of passed apps for the wedding, and went overboard with it all. It was nice to cook good food for the many people that came to the wedding. They enjoyed it all, but I’m sure I enjoyed it more.

We even have our own uniforms. I was walking along and came across a tuxedo t-shirt. Not your typical tuxedo t-shirt either, it was the “after hours” tuxedo t-shirt . Classy, with a hint of trashy. It was perfect so I picked up five of them.

Ian and I worked on the menu after we got out of work, for several weeks, and then went to work on making this a reality. We got everything we could made ahead of time, and had our friends that were helping us to assemble everything there. We looked good, the food tasted good. It was nice to have someone hire us to do this. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Thanks to them for all the special memories, without them I would never had done this.

So, its ben a while since I’ve updated this blog of mine. I no longer work on Nantucket, I had a vision quest and decided that my life would be better in an environment that suits me better. The island was not made for me, I moved back home to my friends and family, I got the dream internship I was looking for. Life changes fast, and you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. Before I left the island, I called around to various Chefs trying to secure an internship. Plan accordingly, always be prepared. I was looking for something that was more my style; I like good, simple, honest food. No more art on a plate for me.

So I called my friend, who is Sous Chef at the best restaurant in the Upper Valley, in my opinion. I talked to him about leaving the island and where I wanted to go. He told me to follow my heart, which I was in the process of doing. He called back a few days later, asking me if I was still looking to get off the island, and wanted to know if I would accept an internship where he works, at Carpenter & Main located in Norwich, Vermont.

I jumped at the opportunity, this is the best restaurant I have know. I have worked there before, and they had an opening as a Garde Manger. I said yes, and started packing for the move homeward. I was excited and nervous, my schooling was on the line with this move. Yes, I was moving home, but it came with a price. I received an incomplete for the first part of my internship, and my entire grade will be based off of the rest of my time at Carpenter & Main.

So now I’m settled in. Life begins at The Pearl. This is a moment that was just given to me to take…the position of Sauté cook and I couldn’t be happier about it. This is the time, there is only now. There is only the moment, that one fleeting moment that you grasp at trying to gain hold of. I will take hold the reins, and lead my life into the next moment and be who I was meant to be. I have no fears of the future, they mean nothing to m., I have only this moment to remind me of the past, there is no way back.  You have to go forward to go backward. That’s what I’ve been told. So there is no way I can go back, I must only go forward.

So I’ve been on Nantucket for two weeks now and I am loving it here. Work is great and I love all the people that I am working with. We have a great crew at all three of the restaurants that I am floating around between. I’m not the biggest fan of being a floater, but its exciting to learn from a multitude of sources. Each Chef, as well as the restaurants, have a different style and approach, a different teaching method, and I think that that has been a really wonderful aspect in my learning. I am absorbing as much info as I can possibly take, listening to everyone and gaining more knowledge as the days go past.

I must confess, if you let me take the time to do so, I really miss the lunches they served up at the National Life. I recently got the schedule rotation of Sanitation and Knife Skills, followed by Table Service and Introduction to Wines. So unfortunately I will not be able to eat lunch up there except for Wednesday and Friday for the next 3 weeks, then I won’t be there at all for the following weeks after that. I want to eat more delicious pastries. I was eating a total of 3 pastries in the morning, and going home with enough pastries to kill a small ox.
Please let me come back to the National Life building. I just want your pastries… And your delicious lunch. Please. I miss Chef Dan as well as Chef Emma, I would’ve liked to cook up there for my stay here at NECI.

This week has been a special week for me here at NECI. Chef Emma has gone on vacation to Vancouver, leaving us in the Food theory class in a flux. We were going to get Chef Stephano, a skilled and talented chef in the kitchen, but it would have left him stretched to teach us and run the kitchen. So Chef Emma got in touch with Chef Lyndon and they decided that Chef Jean-Louis Garin would fill in as our teacher. I was ecstatic to say the least, overjoyed and beaming. I have heard so much about him and really couldn’t wait to go back to class. I have learned so much in this week so far and we’re not even halfway thru this week. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

         Today we had Chef Lyndon as a fill in because Chef Jean-Louis was away on business. We covered emulsions in a culinary kitchen. Temporary emulsion like salad dressing, semi-permanent emulsions also salad dressings, but with mustard to help with the emulsion. Then we did permanent emulsions, mayo and hollandaise. We covered the basic recipes, and then talked about derivatives of those sauces. We talked about how we can use these sauces in everyday cooking applications and how we can make them sound fancy without making them harder to pull off.