- Check this out, it's Trevor James.
I just finished my first ever day
at culinary school in Sichuan.
It was an overwhelming, crazy experience.
I got just thrown right into the fire,
I missed the first month of classes
because I was switching a visa,
so I just went right into class today
and we learned how to make tian-jao-ro-su
which is a bell peppers with pork slivers.
And me coming in there
with basically zero
Chinese cooking skills,
it was a crazy experience,
and I was lucky enough
to get some behind the
scenes footage for you.
So this is just a casual video
of my first day at Sichuan school,
Sichuan Culinary School, and I'll be here
for the next two years, and I want you
to come along with me on this journey.
So take a look.
I just dropped out of my master's
in international trade to come here.
This is what I really want to do,
and I'll be sharing my journey
of becoming a Sichuan cook with you.
- [Trevor Voiceover] After living in Asia
for almost three years,
and being completely
spoiled by the abundance
of delicious and cheap
street food in China,
Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and India,
I've had no incentive to cook.
It's so easy and fun
to just hit the street
and eat new food all the time.
So I honestly think, in like three years,
I've cooked less than 10 meals for myself.
As I explored the Shanghai
street food scene last month,
it dawned on me that I was about
to enter my third semester
at the economic school
that I was studying for no reason.
What I really wanted to do was continue
to create content and resources for you.
I was merely studying there
because I thought it would
be a good backup plan
if food ranging failed,
but now I feel confident it won't.
I realize that I'm really good at eating,
decent at producing videos
and planning them out,
I'm alright at describing flavors,
but I can't back it up
with culinary skills.
And over the last two years
I've been really bothered by this,
until I recently watched
the classic Julie and Julia,
and I learned that even
Julia Child herself
couldn't cook an egg when she entered
Le Cordon Bleu in France, so here we go.
I'm going full in.
I'm 100% committed to
this, and will not fail.
I'm gonna learn to cook Sichuan cuisine,
and it's all starting here.
This is the beginning of my new journey,
and I want you to follow along with me.
Here's some funny behind the scenes,
me being completely clueless footage.
- [Trevor] That's mine,
that's the professor's.
- [Trevor Voiceover] And as you can see,
the locals find my accent hilarious
and keep repeating what I say.
I was lucky to find this class
that starts from the very basics,
and we're starting by
practicing chopping dough.
It's all taught in
Chinese Sichuan dialect,
so Ting Ting is also sitting in
to help translate some of the stuff
that I don't understand.
I also made friends with a senior student
who helped me out that day.
- Okay.
This is great.
- Faster.
- Faster!
- [Trevor Voiceover] And later
we went into the kitchen,
and I attempted to cook my first ever
Tian-jao-ro-su in the
professional kitchen.
- Slower!
- Slow, slow.
- Okay, that's enough!
That's enough.
- Not good, not good.
Okay, let's try it out.
My first ever Chinese tian-jao-ro-su.
Here we go.
Oh, it's a little too oily and too salty.
But otherwise it's okay.
There we go.
So I really want you to keep following
my food journeys here.
I'm gonna be learning at
the Culinary Institute
for the next two years,
this is gonna be a blast,
I'm really hoping I can
make beautiful dishes
like this yoo-shaung-ro-su
after I graduate,
and as you can see I'm
just stumbling around.
I have no clue what I'm doing,
but that is what learning is about.
So leave me a comment down below
and follow my Instagram, @thefoodranger.
I'm gonna be hosting couch surfers,
actually Ida is here right now,
been hosting her for a few nights.
We've been having a good time,
having this good local food.
And if you want to stay here,
go to my couch surfing profile
and make a request before December 15th,
'cause I'm accepting guests until then.
Okay?
Thanks guys.
Leave a comment down below.
Bye bye.
