Picture Progress #6

Seventeenth Week At Pathways

December 11th, 2013 -
On Monday, my whole class had to create a meal for the Advisory Committee which had about 25 people. My class and I split into groups to create this fabulous meal. Denna and I were working on making the cream of asparagus soup, along with garden swiss chard, applewood smoked bacon and golden cranberries. It was my first time making a soup and I felt very happy because after we created the soup, I remembered everything by heart about how to make it. It was also a shocker because it was also my first time trying asparagus and it was so delicious that I ended up eating four bowls total! The tricky part about making this meal is that we had only 3 1/2 hours to complete it and we managed to get it done with only six students! How impressive!

Fresh Starts Menu

Hors d'oeuvres (appetizers)
Dungeness Crab Cakes
Orange Chipotle Aioli

Soup
Cream of Asparagus Soup

Entrée (main course)
Salmon Tournedo
Tarragon Beurre Blanc, Saffron Rice Pilaf
Garden Fresh Swiss Chard
Applewood Smoked Bacon

Salad
Baby Mixed Greens
Local Artisan Cheeses, Housemade Quince
Champagne Vinaigrette

Dessert
Crème Brule

Beverages
Hibiscus Iced Tea



Yesterday was the scariest day ever in my culinary class. Tier 2 and 3 had to take the Serv Safe Manager Exam. I was nervous. The only reason why I was so nervous was because I really want to pass that test and be certified to have a Serv Safe Manager certification. There were many questions that required a lot of common sense and remembering temperatures and sanitation. During the test, I felt very confident because all of our instructors prepared us to take this written exam, and I studied really hard for it. As soon as it was over, I felt relieved and in 10 days I receive my results. I hope I scored well.

Next week will be the last week I attend Fresh Starts Culinary Academy and my graduation ceremony is on December 18th at 6:00 P.M. I learned so much from this program and I will use it in my career because the career I'd like to pursue would be in the culinary field. There is so much to learn out there and I am willing to learn much more.

Picture Progress #5

400 Bag Lunches delivered to Peer Summit (when I was at Next Key kitchen.)

 

Grilled Sandwich/Panini Station for Pantry

 

Cold Sandwich Station For Pantry

 

Grilling a Panini

 

When I made Tuna Salad from a recipe for Pantry

 

Me having fun for my first time sautéing

Picture Progress #4

Pasta Jumbalaya

 

Broccoli Cheddar Individual Quiche

Grilled Pork Scallopine with Rosemary Butter

 

Chicken Pot Pie

 

Seafood Cioppino

 

Chicken with Curried Honey-Lemon Sauce

 

Butternut Squash-Sage Risotto (Vegetarian Entrée)

 

Grilled Pork Chop Manchamantel

 

Asian Simmered Cod





Sixteenth Week At Pathways

December 4th, 2013 -
Instead of working on the line, Chef Rocky switched me to prepping food for the day and for the following day. As the prep cook, my duties are to read the menu plan for the week and know exactly what to prep. There's always a description, but sometimes there's a recipe included too. For instance, today I made peanut-cilantro sauce for the entrée for tomorrow. I followed a recipe and once it was done, I tasted it and it was delicious! Yesterday, I made one of the desserts for Jackson Café and it came out beautiful! I like the fact that I am now a prep cook because I can practice and refine my knife skills. I believe that prep is the most important step in cooking because if you mess it up, you mess up your dish and if you don't prep, who will? Before I joined Fresh Starts, I used to follow recipes, but for baking instead of cooking. What I'm currently doing is helping me because I need more assistance in following all kinds of recipes. I want to become a master in reading and executing recipes!

Fifteenth Week At Pathways

November 27th, 2013 -
I have just discovered that I am good at grilling burgers and being on the line. Every time those order tickets come in, I know exactly what to do. It's like I get an adrenaline rush and I get excited that it's my time to shine and the other line cook as well. One time there were about 10+ tickets coming in and I worked well under pressure. When the orders come in, there is not only one type of meal to be served; there are three. One is the entrée of the day, vegetarian entrée of the week and either a hamburger or cheeseburger. The regular and vegetarian entrée come with a side salad, and the hamburger or cheeseburger comes with a side of fries. The first day I started to work on the line, I was a bit confused about what to do since I had become so comfortable being in the pantry. I like working at Jackson Café because our instructor, Chef Rocky, places all of us in different stations so by the time we graduate Fresh Starts Culinary Academy, we will all know how to operate each of the stations and it gives us a taste of how it feels to be working at a restaurant or any place to eat.

Also, this week I had an interview with Doug Eng at ITK Culinary (In The Kitchen) a catering company in Sausalito and it went great! All of the great things he told me about what my experience would be if I became an intern there made me excited and I feel like it will be a great opportunity. One of the reasons why I was so excited was because I could assist prepping food for the children at the afterschool program and also on some other days of the week, there are cooking classes involving different cuisines. I loved what I heard and he loved me. I will start my internship there on January 6th. I'm ready for more knowledge after Fresh Starts!

Picture Progress #3

 Chicken Cacciatore

 French Onion Soup with Swiss Crostini

 Grilled Pork chops with Chimichurri

 My lunch I had on Monday, it was a Salmon Swiss & Cheddar melt with Mushroom. The soup was a French Onion soup with Swiss Cheese Crostini.

Fourteenth Week At Pathways

November 20, 2013 -
Guess what position I am in now? I am now a line cook and when an order comes in at lunchtime, Danielle and I are the ones to make that entrée. These are the meals I have prepared over the past week: poached salmon with garden beurre blanc, chicken cacciatore, grilled pork chops with chimichurri, and tilapia with brown butter and almonds. I have averaged well over 60 lunches in a day. I've found that working on the line is very different than working at the pantry. The similarities are that those are both stations where you prepare food. After a few days working at a station, it gets easier to remember how to fill orders. The first day I was on the line, we were grilling pork chops and for me it wasn't complicated because my father has shown me how to cook pork chops, so it wasn't much of a sweat. Besides making the entrées of the day, I also cook hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries. Jackson Café is a different experience compared to the Next Key kitchen and I feel as if I was prepared to work at Jackson Café. Since the first week at Fresh Starts, my classmates and I were thrown into the fire, already learning how to sharpen knives, prep and much more. By the end of these six weeks at Jackson Café, I will have so much I have learned and will be ready for my next challenge in my pursuit of culinary excellence. I am so excited.

Jackson Cafe Menu

Picture Progress #2

Thirteenth Week At Pathways

November 13, 2013 -
Last Thursday, there was a very exciting event and Dave Budworth, aka Dave the Butcher, from San Francisco came for the chef event at the Next Key Center. He has been a butcher for about 25 years and he currently works at Marina Meats and Avedano's. For the last six years, he has been at Marina Meats and he has been butchering meats since 1989 in San Francisco. That night it was awesome meeting him and I learned a few things or two about sausages, for instance, a hot dog or bologna is an emulsified sausage.

If you click the two links below, there is more information about David Budworth.
A Video About Dave The Butcher
David Budworth's Blog

This week is the beginning of working at Jackson Café! Monday we didn't have school and so we started on Tuesday. The Tier 3 chef is Chef Rocky and so he will be the one to mainly instruct us on the daily meals they serve at Jackson. On the day we were promoted into Tier 3, we had a surprise lunch there and we had a tour of the kitchen. Chef Rocky said that there were three stations and we would rotate through each of them during our time at the café. We were able to choose our first station and I chose the pantry. The pantry is the station for sandwiches and soup. Everyday there is a list of sandwiches that can be ordered; turkey, tuna, egg salad or a grilled sandwich of the day. In the pantry, my instructor is Maurice and my partner is Denna. We both switch roles; yesterday I was making the grilled sandwiches and today she made the grilled sandwiches. There is a white three-ring binder and it holds all the recipes they use for Jackson's entrees and dressings. Yesterday, I made the tuna salad and also the coleslaw. Right now we are starting out with easy entrees and as the weeks go by, the entrees will get more advanced. The other two stations I will eventually rotate to are the prep and the line.

Twelfth Week At Pathways

November 6, 2013 -
This week has been absolutely amazing! At the beginning of the week, I was feeling anxious because I knew we had to study for the Tier 2 Assessment, as well as the ServSafe Manager Exam. Monday was the last day I got to work at the NBC Kitchen (New Beginnings Center.) I learned so much working at that kitchen because I used my knife skills a whole lot and so I feel like I have improved. The next day, all of the students in both tiers had to work together to get many tasks done. One of our tasks was to make box lunches and inside the box lunches were chicken and César salad, veggie and meat wraps and two chocolate chip cookies. We had over 80 lunch boxes and we had to get them finished within two hours, along with making the pizza for the Charter School in Novato. That day, Chef Jacques had assessed me on how well I performed in class; math skills, kitchen equipment use knowledge, job readiness, participation and my attitude. The results I got from him were that I exceed and that I am ready to be put in the work field. I was very happy when I heard that and it motivated me to keep up and do what needs to be done. On top of that, I was promoted into Tier 3 and next week I will be working everyday, 8:00 to 3:00, at Jackson's Café in San Rafael. This is a very exciting moment for me. I can't believe I made it this far and I feel I have accomplished a lot because of my hard work and dedication at Fresh Starts.

Yesterday, I had another test and it was based on being divided up into two teams. On my team, I was with Josie, Dina, Matt, Robinson, Solomon and Raquel. Our assignment was to make Spicy Orange Chicken using a recipe that Chef Carol gave us at the beginning of the week. We were making the Orange Chicken for the staff meeting that day and so we had from 1:00 - 3:00 to get everything done. Our results came in from Steve and Chef Carol; they said that we did an excellent job organizing what needed to be done and they liked how we were on task the whole time. Working as a team made all of us stronger because we used our communication skills to talk to each other and we actually did a good job. At the ending, it was worth it because I got a sense of how it feels to be in a kitchen and working with other people. It turned out that the time limit that was given was good because we got the food finished on time and ready to be served.

I love my culinary class; I feel as if everyone wants me to succeed and cares about me. I feel appreciated and I am getting the education I want and it's helping me get to my future career that I've been dreaming about.

Picture Progress #1

 





Eleventh Week At Pathways

November 1, 2013 -
I have so much to talk about this week and Friday was the most exciting day of them all! Starting out on Monday, I was in a group of three; Dina, Josie and me. We all had a task and the task was to make cornbread following a recipe that was given to us. There were no steps, just ingredients. I used what I knew and remembered from the last time we made cornbread. My two teammates mainly relied on me and asked me what we should do first, so I told them to get all the ingredients out first and then I would tell them what to do. We put all the dry ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and left the liquid ingredients separate. From there, we mixed the shortening, butter and sugar. Next, the eggs went into the mix and last but not least, the dry ingredients and frozen corn. After making the cornbread mixture, we spread the batch evenly into all the pans and voila! We baked the cornbread and let it cool. I tasted the cornbread and it tasted really good! It's better to make homemade cornbread versus the cornbread from Safeway or any grocery store.

Later on that day, I was in another group and our task was to make risotto. I was the captain and everyone was asking me what to do. I was in a group of five and all of my teammates were from Tier 1. Everything went smoothly and the risotto was the right consistency.

On Tuesday, I helped Chef Luis make chocolate truffles. While making chocolate, one important tip is that you have to work fast and efficiently because if you're in a cold environment, the chocolate will harden. The room he uses is warmer than the kitchen itself and the machine he uses is made only for left-handed people. Chef Luis is left-handed, so he's the only one who knows the machine inside and out. After he creates the outer shell for the truffles, he places the trays upside down on a sheet of parchment (4 to a parchment) and waits 5 minutes. Once the chocolate hardens, he has to take off the excess chocolate and stack all of the trays on top of each other. Inside the truffles, he adds different fillings. The next day he made a raspberry filling, as well as a milk chocolate ganache. That was very exciting.

On Friday, I worked at the New Beginnings kitchen and instead of making salad for New Beginnings, I made salad for Voyage and Mill Street. I like being able to work there because I improve on my knife skills and I cut vegetables more efficiently. For the salad, I cut red onions, bell peppers, red peppers, cucumbers, celery, carrots and tomatoes. I helped make part of the dinner for New Beginnings and I cut potatoes into potato wedges and we sprinkled some type of seasoning on them. I believe it consisted of paprika, onion powder, flour, black pepper and salt. I got to taste some of the potato wedges and they were outstanding!

Later on Friday, I attended a catering event at the Maserati car dealership in Mill Valley. This event was really fun and exciting! It lasted from 4:00pm - 9:00pm. The menu was chicken salad crostini with roasted red pepper, melted leek crostini with goat cheese, chicken satay dipped in sweet chili sauce with peanut cilantro dressing, shrimp cakes with black bean aoili, and a dessert platter with strawberry tarts, oatmeal raisin cookies, gluten free coconut macaroons with dipped chocolate, espresso brownies and more. The majority of the time I was serving melted leek crostini with goat cheese and people loved it! I got a lot of nice compliments from many of the customers including the man who hosted the event. During the event, I was taking pictures of the Maserati cars and I was fascinated with the Maserati Gran Turismo sports car. It was a new car that just came out and it was light blue. As I was taking pictures of that car, one of the salesmen offered to take a picture of me inside the car and I was very happy to accept the offer! My dream was to take a picture in that car and my wish came true! When the event ended, I had a smile on my face and was glad to work that night. I can't wait until another event like this comes up.

Tenth Week At Pathways

October 23, 2013 -
One of the most exciting events I encountered this week was being able to watch Chef Luis create a recipe. He made Shrimp Salmon Chowder and my assignment was to write a recipe based on what I observed. Throughout the process, I took notes on how he made the chowder. It was a challenge, but I managed to get it finished on time. The recipe serves about 100+.

Instead of working in the Next Key kitchen, I got to start working in the New Beginnings kitchen and learned what the duties were in there. I learned how to make the lunch box requests for those who requested a box lunch and also to prepare the salads for the lunch at New Beginnings Center. After I made the lunch boxes, I also helped serve lunch from 12:30 - 1:00. Usually lunch starts at noon and lasts an hour. For that week I was a server, but took turns with one of my classmates.

On Thursday, there was an event at the Health & Wellness Center in San Rafael and I was a caterer during that time. I helped serve platters of food like crab cakes with orange chipotle sauce, BBQ pulled pork sliders and more. Every time there's a chance to work, I usually always take it because I gain more experience and I have the opportunity to overcome the shyness that I get when I'm around a lot of people.

The next day, it was my first time grilling pork loin on a grill. There were about 35 - 40 for each batch. There were 3 rows of 13 and the first row held the ones that were cooked the longest; it's a sequential order. After grilling the pork loin, I learned how to make crème brulee and use the fire torch. The fire torch is to make the sugar melt into caramel and it's similar to flan, but very different methods and different ingredients are used in the dessert. This week was great! I always learn new things everyday and I use it when the right time comes around.

Ninth Week At Pathways

October 16th, 2013 -
This week there was a new addition to our class, there is a new tier of students who have joined. Everything I have learned in Tier 1, they are now learning and also they have to take the Food Handler's test as well. The Tier 2 students are now able to teach Tier 1 students on how to do certain tasks and today I guided four students how to chiffonade Swish Chard correctly. On Tuesday, all of Fresh Starts students learned how to make pretzels from a professional baker and his name is Sam. He taught us how to roll out the pretzel dough and create the perfect pretzel. Everyone took a turn and I was 5th in line to go. I learned that if you let the dough sit out long enough, its called "resting" and it helps the dough stretch. Also, I learned that sodium hydroxide is used to make the pretzels become the color brown. After we made our pretzels, we got to eat them and they were delicious. I have eaten many pretzels and the best are the homemade pretzels. I feel confident enough to make pretzels once again on my own.

Eighth Week At Pathways

October 9th, 2013 -
The culinary program that I am in is broken down into three tiers. In order to move to the next tier, you need to successfully complete tests, quizzes, communication, life skills, gardening, cooking and skill demonstrations, and mise en place (It is a French phrase which means "putting in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients.) This week I graduated from Tier 1 and received my diploma.

 

I learned a lot of new things such as how to wrap a spring roll, fold mousse in the process of making it fluffy, how to become a caterer, and wrap mushroom cakes with panko Japanese bread crumbs. The most exciting moment this week was helping to cater the pre-opening ceremony at Target in San Rafael. I have never served samples to people before and for my first time, I actually thought it was fun and I enjoyed it. I'm always that type of person that's shy around people, but I actually got over that fear and went through with it. I felt nervous at first, but now that I think of it, it's not so bad at all. If you put a smile on your face and believe in yourself, you can do anything you put your mind to. That's exactly what I've done and it helped me a whole lot.

Seventh Week At Pathways

October 2, 2013 -
There were many tips and tricks that I have learned over the week. For instance, I learned that Valencia Oranges are used mainly for juicing and Navel Oranges are used mainly for eating. There was a test today based on sanitation, temperatures, fruits, vegetables, etc. I scored 78%. There were 121 questions and I got 96 correct. Along with the written test, there was another kind of test and that was to perform a bias cut for 4 cups of carrots within 5 minutes and also a small diced cut for 2 cups of carrots in 5 minutes. Before taking these tests, we did prepare and practice how to cut certain styles. On Monday, I learned three different cutting techniques; julienne, small dice and bias. There were only two cuts used in the test and I performed very well. I had some trouble with the small dice, but I'm getting better at it each time I try.

Sixth Week At Pathways

I passed the Food Handler's test with 82% and got certified to work in the food industry. I'm so happy to take this class and learn so much about food I have never known before.

This week, we learned how to calibrate thermometers and use them correctly, how to sharpen knives using a variety of sharpening tools. We also learned a lot of new vocabulary words for different cooking utensils as well as identifying different kinds of vegetables and understanding the best ways to prepare them. I received a thermometer so that I could take the temperature of the food I cook. In order to calibrate the thermometer, the first step is to stick the thermometer in a cup of ice water for 15-30 seconds and turn the knob reading to 32 degrees. Once that happens, I have successfully calibrated the thermometer.

I learned many tips on how to sharpen a knife correctly. When cutting or slicing food, it's helpful to use a wooden board and essential to separate the vegetables and red meat on different cutting boards. The best kind of wooden cutting board to use would be a bamboo cutting board. When using a stone to sharpen a knife, you always would have to wipe it with a towel after. Also, when sharpening on a stone block, if you sharpen up to five times on one side, then you have to be consistent on all sides. You should start on one side and end on the other side. If you don't sharpen correctly, the knife will not cut properly.