[MUSIC]
Well, my name is Evelyn Kourliouros. I
come from a big Greek family so we're
all really loud and really passionate
about whatever we do and us Greeks are
all about doing what you love so I
decided to follow what I really wanted
to do and make a career out of it.
Before this, I had already gone to a four-year
college and I was working in the field. I
just wasn't feeling full. I wanted more.
I wanted to something different and I was
looking for a change so quickly so I
decided that after a while, what made
me happy was baking.
So, you know, I looked around and found that we had this great program at COD and you know I I decided
that it was something I needed to do -
go back to school and find something
that really made me happy.
So my
experience at COD with the professors
and chefs has been, it's been fantastic.
Some of the classes that I've taken so
far are a beginning baking class which is
really cool so we did a lot with bread
with Chef Carey which is really
interesting and then I've also taken a
cake decorating class which is
especially interesting to me because
that's more along the lines of what I
want to get into.
As the classes progress, we learn more
more and really dive deeper into the
specifics of baking and plating and
specialty desserts. It's really cool.
So I met with Chef Carey before I even decided to
enroll there and she was just super
pleasant the whole time and a really
helpful with all the information and
really available for me to email or call
if I need anything.
Chef Theilman, Chef T...
is hilarious. He's tough but he's
also he's compassionate and he treats
you like a professional and not just the
students which is good because sometimes
you need that like tough love because
that's what you're gonna get in the
field and Chef Wagner is just a
wonderful person. I just love her and
she's she's really fun to learn from
because she has the experience and that
she's super smart and she knows what
she's doing cake decorating and she has
she had her business in Florida so you
can always relate back and she shows us
pictures from things that she's done so
it's really easy to see that we're not
just decorating for fun. We can apply it
to a real situation, which is really cool.
While I'm in school and working here at
Blackberry Market
and it was a place that I had seen
before I started go to school but as I
made the transition into school I wanted
to find a job in a related field. It's a
lot of what we do here. It's really nice
because it has a more rustic feel to our
food. It's very like delicious baked
goods not so much of a fancy plated
desserts but it's really great because
that's the kind of food that people want
to eat because it's comforting and a lot
of what we're doing here are what we
learned in the basics. It's basic, you
know, making sure you're mixing correctly
and making sure you're baking correctly
and making sure that you are cutting
equal portions and it just it really
helps you hone in on those solid skills
that you need to have. I would definitely
recommend the culinary program at COD
because it's it's very doable it can be
very daunting going into it and it seems
like a lot and the kitchens can be
intimidating because there's so much
going on but the chef's there are just a
wealth of knowledge and the equipment
that we have you're not going to find at
every other school and it's an
affordable experience. It's something
that it was able to go back and do which
I might not have been able to do if I
went to a huge culinary school elsewhere.
So it's just it's a really great program.
