I love cooking and the instructor here, she's
really good. She makes it fun and you look
forward to coming to class.
It's a very difficult way to make a living,
but there's nothing better. It's hard work,
but it's fun hard work. And once you get it
in your blood, you can't do anything else.
We'll spend so many hours learning about the
food techniques, and cultures, and where different
spices come from. And then we will go ahead
and demonstrate in the kitchen, so it's very
hands-on.
We learn from the book, we learn in the classroom,
we learn in the kitchen. In our 8-hour class,
we work on book-work for about 2-hours, then
we enter the kitchen, and then she gives us
instructions, and we are off on our own.
My teacher, she's incredible. With her experience,
and her travels, and bringing those stories
into class. And then to be in the kitchen,
and have her show you different techniques.
So they do everything. I don't make anything.
I don't serve anything. I give directions,
and the students make all the food, they serve
all the food. I'm always clean because I don't
actually work.
You have plenty of stations to work in, you
have plenty of mixers, you have plenty of
equipment. That from our caterings that we
do, all that money that our teacher raises,
she buys us catering stuff or mixers or brand
new toys that we like to enjoy.
It's good experience for the students, and
when they use the equipment, they respect
it because they've bought it. It was their
hard work, and they know that when we need
things and buy stuff...I would say that 75%
of the equipment we have was bought by catering
dollars.
I love the fact that we have catering events
with our instructor. So we get to know how
much work you put into it, and not just the
work, the passion that it is.
So when they prepare the food, they're there
when we serve it. So they're seeing the customer's
feedback, they're seeing the face, they're
seeing "wow, they really like it". You know,
it has to be perfect because we're putting
it out.
If you're in front of the house, you have
to serve the food help people find where the
plates and napkins and if you're in the back
of the house, you're obviously going to be
cooking everything up. But it just gives you
that extra experience that you need.
Culinary school is very expensive. So before
you spend your $60,000 on a private institution,
you really should come and see do I like it.
A hobby's different than a career.
It's great that they're giving us the material
and everything. And we get to learn how to
use a knife correctly, or how to use a mixer
correctly. So I'm very happy to be in this
program.
The smile on the customer when you get a complement
like, "Oh what a wonderful cake" or "What
a wonderful entrée." So that's my passion
of this.
