2011 August: Calm before the Storm

As hurricane Irene approaches the New York seaboard, The grey skies and clouds begin to close in around the CIA campus in Hyde Park.  I decided to walk the grounds and get pictures of what was happening waith regards to nature in the woods around campus.

mushrooms abound

reaching up for sunshine

old bridge located above the stream

rocky outcropping

moss covered tree

surprise

heads up

peeking through the grass

growing at the base of a shrub

dense moss along path

a barge is coming down the Hudson

lonely student

wild berries

mr. groundhogs home

orange bloom

walking bridge across Hudson

tugboat pushing a barge

tugboat

The rain is coming and the skies are turning grey and gloomy.  The humidity is up and the temperature is dropping fast.  The stores are out of bottled water and the lower part of Manhattan has been evacuated.  We shall see what is to come.

2011 August: Campus Life

I am finally getting settled in to campus life.  I live in a dorm with one roommate.  It is a 12' x 20' room with two desks, two dressers, and two beds.  a small closet and a small bathroom.
For me the change was somewhat dramatic. A year ago I was living in a loft with my wife sleeping on an overstuffed queen bed in a 25' x'25' bedroom had a car and a steady income.
As of today the car is gone, Karin is living in Connecticut teaching Jr. High students math, science and computers, and I am working Part time at a bakery.
School is full time and has been fairly challenging over the last five weeks.

I have been able to sleep through the night on my small twin mattress, getting used to my roommates differing schedule.  I have joined the photography club in hopes of learning how to use my DSLR for food pics.  I have taken over the presidency of the SACE club (Students for Advanced Career Experience)  We do Saturday night street food for the students since no decent food is available on campus on the weekends.  I have begun to get active with the SGA (student Government) and participate in several other functions volunteering my time on the weekends to stay busy, get a free meal and help stave off the boredom.
Most of all I am finding that I truly miss my wife.  I did not think it would be so bad.  We made it through my externship of 4.5 months but the next 8 months are going to be tough.
Hopefully keeping myself busy will help to keep my mind on the goal of graduation and the "dream job" to come.

I wanted the campus life and now I have it full force.  Be careful what you wish for, you may get it in droves.

Roth Hall

2011 August: Jack Attack

My boss at the bakery is a nice guy.  He started the bakery at age 70 because he was bored and needed something to do.  He is self taught and doing everything he can to grow his little business.

The other day he had a dream about a giant turnover.  So he made one that was the size of a half sheet tray.  This quickly sold and he decided to go bigger.  3/4 of a full sheet tray.  This to sold.  He is always coming up with new ideas.  He wants to sell things that others don't offer.  A good philosophy in the hard times.

Apple turnovers are his specialty and breakfasts are building every day.  With lots of hard work and dedication he is starting to see his business grow after 2 years of 7 day weeks and 12 hour days.

2011 August: Fish Fry Hooo!

It turns out that I was awoken at around 10am this past Saturday morning.  Karin was in need of help.  She was moving on Monday and had yet to pack and her daughter had just left from visiting and she needed morale support so I jumped up and within 15 minutes was on a train bound for Albany. 
I arrived at the train station an hour later thinking that we would rush to her house and begin the arduous task of packing.  Well first we would get boxes.  BUT!  She was on a quest with her Yelp friends.  It was Fish fry day.  They were out taste testing fish fry's in the Albany area.  Now a fish fry in the south is an event with many fish and hush puppies and beers and music and mosquitoes.
Not so in the upstate NY region of America.  It is a sandwich.  Ordered with or without. such as, " I need two with and one without."  There is no need to say what "it" is because you are at a fish fry.  Ted's fish fry, Gene's fish fry, Rob and Paul's fish fry, Matt's fish fry or the Off Shore Pier fish fry.  The crusty dives range in ambiance from a pirates shanty where one is sure to be shanghaied to a cute blue and white New England seaside diner.  Each had a full menu of fried and broiled seafood and other tidbits but they were all famous for their specialty. 

A Fish fry is by definition of preparation: a deep fried piece(s) of flaky (one hopes) whitefish, the crust is a meal of bread and corn crumbs not a batter.  It is served between a bun (standard hotdog) and accompanied by a perverted chili sauce, many variations of tarter sauce and cocktail sauce.  I say perverted because I am originally from the south and chili sauce is not a sweet condiment.  Here in upstate NY it is a sweet condiment with relish and other things added. 

the sauces vary the fish may be haddock, cusk, pollack or cod but it doesn't stray far beyond that.  The citizens of the greater Albany area line up for this fanciful fish and frolic in its fruition as a fabulous food.  We tasted and tasted and tasted and tasted and t a s t e d....  Finally a winner was decided upon based on the collection of scores of eleven tasters.  My favorite won.  Off Shore fish fry.

For a greater description of the day tune  in to:
http://fussylittleblog.com/2011/08/08/tour-de-fish-fry/
for all the details.

Fish ahoy

2011 August: The menu as "restorante"

My menu concepts class is crossing over into the purchasing and cost control class which is crossing over into the managment HR class which all ties into good nutrition.  This all comes together and makes the Law class seem way more relevant.
As the days progress and I read into these books I can clearly see why all these classes are lumped together in the "L" block here at the CIA.

In the past I have designed and implemented well over 100 menus.  Using them to sell my favorite foods, to promote the style of cooking I liked at the time, to represent a holiday or a themed event.  I usually constructed them with some thought about the dishes and completed the basics of food costing and generating par and prep lists from them.

Now though, I am seeing past the general base that is the menu and learning about its origin, its original purpose and the ways in which it can be fine tuned, optimized to really generate capital in this business of tight margins and expiration dates.

The first restaurants were based on "restorantes" or restoratives, foods to heal and revitalize after the days journey.  With the health movement starting to gain more and more momentum into the main stream of the industry it seems that the menu is returning to means to accomplish several goals.  first it can once again reflect it's origins by offering the consumer a means of restoration.  Using fresh and local products free of chemicals and hormones as well as full of more vital nutrients.  This combined with the knowledge to manipulate the menu to generate profit can accomplish the goals of the business man inside the chef.  allowing for a successful restaurant and a healthier clientele who in turn continue to patronize the local that restores them.

I now see that more time must be given to the deeper  underpinnings of the menu to ensure that it can accomplish all that it can.  It is the restaurant, the rudder by which the chef moves across the sea of food and beverage waves.

2011 August: The prodigal son returns

Well, Orientation is over and I can finally rest for a moment.

the morning began at 6:30 am, I had to finish loading the car and make some juice for Karin, she was a bit under the weather.  We headed out to borrow her friends van and then we hustled down to the school so I could get ahead of everyone and move in when it was still cool.  Well we arrived at 9:30 am and were told that move in did not commence until 1 pm.  It would have been nice to know that, but it turned out that due to summer break many students did not receive the "memo".  This added tension and stress to Karin's day as she had to leave Hyde Park by 2 pm to get the van back to her friend.

We headed over to the storage unit and loaded it up, everything but my bike.  I forgot to bring the tie downs.  We then headed over to the diner for some breakfast.  That helped to alleviate a little of the stress.

Next we headed to the bakery where I work to get some video footage for the chef/weight-loss show I am auditioning for.  That was fun and I got to get back up to speed with things from the bakery.

We headed back to the school at noon to wait in line to move in.  Luckily they had started letting people move in early.  We parked and I got a dolly (yay!)  Seven loads later a bucket of sweat and most of my mental capacity and I had my dorm room loaded.

Being 45 I am used to a nice big bedroom with a King or Queen bed, with nice surroundings.  Well this is not a dorm.  The twin beds, desks and dressers were huddled in the middle of the room, the last tenants had left brooms and trashcans along with a plunger. Which was good because those were things that I did not bring, I am a guy after all.  My boxes now seemed overwhelming.  I thought I had gotten rid of so much stuff, but in reality I still need to purge so much stuff, a side project over the school year.  I barely managed to find a home for everything.  My roommate showed up with i suitcase and a laptop.  Nice.

The next morning was orientation.  Up at 6 for breakfast, no wait 6:15, no 6:30, no 6:45...Didn't get very good sleep last night, my roommate was doing laundry at 1 am.  Well I wanted to experience dorm life. So here it is in full force right off the bat.

I showed up for the Post extern meeting at 7:30 but it had been moved to 9:30, once again, no one had been informed of the changes.  Hours passed, orientation speeches went on and on.  Welcome back speeches, Lines for the bursars office, lines for the registrars office, lines for the nurse and for uniforms and a 50# box of books to haul around as well.  By the time lunch rolled around I was famished.  Wow, It is amazing how much I missed the smells of the kitchens and the warm comfy sight of lunch at the CIA.

Classes for the next six weeks include: Restaurant Law, Nutrition, Menu Concept and Design, Cost Control and Purchasing, and Into to Management. Gonna be interesting to say the least.

Well It's back to the dorm for a nap.