It's the 4th of July and I'm loading my first official entry after getting my blog up. So welcome to my little corner of the internet and thank you for stopping by! Feel free to leave comments, check out the ads and links, and generally explore my site!
My name is Derek Smith, and I'm a student at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. There's more about me in my bio profile, so feel free to check it out! The purpose of my blog is to entertain, educate, vent, chat, and generally have a place to dialogue. An online journal open to the public, if you will. But mainly, it's to document my education at the world's greatest culinary school.
My destination: graduating first with the Associate's of Occupational Science in Culinary Arts, and then the Bachelor's of Professional Studies. The difference--the AOS is all of the cooking classes. After that, you go into the BPS program for the restaurant management classes. The ultimate goal: a restaurant empire coast to coast! By the way, I already have one Associate's degree in aircraft maintenance from the Community College of the Air Force, and I also have a BA/BS in Communications and a BA in English from Norwich University in Vermont, the nation's oldest private military university, almost 200 years old.
There will be three tiers--fine dining, family accessible, and a cafe/bistro/coffee house/wine bar type place. The top two tiers will be similar in concept, while the cafe will stand alone. I have an original concept that hit me like a ton of bricks in the middle of the night, the middle of the week, the middle of March of 2009... But I'll go into that in a second. For the restaurants, I've got the names picked out, chosen the cities in which I want to be, and a notebook full of ideas jotted down on menu items, decor, service, chain of command, the whole nine yards, and it evolves frequently.
The whole thing started when I was working 2 thankless retail jobs 12-13 hrs a day, 6 days a week. All I wanted to do when I got home, after walking Gracie, is jump in the kitchen and cook. So I'd throw in a dvd, pour a glass of wine, fire up the stove and start cooking--all 4 burners and 3 pans in the oven. I'd cook for hours without breaking a sweat, and when something was done cooking I'd put it in storage containers, wash out the pot and start round two. The next thing I knew it was five ours later, I'd cooked everything in the house, and the fridge was full of Tupperware!
On this particular night, it was coming up on 1 am, and I was texting my best friend, Phil, and this original concept came to me. Don't ask me what... Trade secret... But I bounced the idea off of Phil and he liked it. So I, for all intents and purposes, gave my notice on both jobs and my apartment pretty much the next day and that was it. I was going to culinary school. I didn't know about CIA at that time, just Le Cordon Bleu, of which there was one in Dallas. Phil lives in Fort Worth, so there was the exit strategy in place. I had no money, a mountain of debt, no job lined up, and I just packed up and left. My friends in San Antonio didn't believe that I was really going to go... But I was gone to Fort Worth for the next year. What happened in Fort Worth was, well, an amazing roller coaster...
But it's late tonight, so I'm going to get off of here, and if you've read this far, I thank you for staying with me! The story of Fort Worth and the path to getting to The Culinary is still to follow... So tune in Monday evening for the next installment!
Clear consommes and precision knife cuts!
2 comments:
Ok that was a cruel cliff hanger. It was more like a friday afternoon soap opera ending hehe. I will be checking in tomorrow for more of the story ;o)
Thank you! I'm glad you like it! But yes, there is more to come this evening!
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