w00t! Day off

So I woke up this morning at around 10, 10:30ish. Then just sat in bed reading Alton Browns "I'm just here for More Food." It's all about baking and techniques for it. It goes into great great detail. Which is awesome. Alton Brown, he writes excellent excellent cookbooks. Highly recommended. If you like cooking, and want to cook very very well. Then read/study his books.

So today I'm gonna pay rent, maybe check my accounts and stuff. I think we're gonna try and go to Salisbury and try and get a Sam's Club membership. (it's like Costco, but run by Wal-Mart.)

ok, the pro's, prepare for a short list.

Because all the workers here are, lets say, ineffective. We look like absolute gods compared to the rest of them. The Chef's trust us with VIP function stuff. Which we do well, because we're all good cooks. So that's awesome, we have a chance to shine.

(another con, the executive chef doesn't like to promote interns! PIECE OF MONKEY CRAP!)

The cost of living down here is ridiculously cheap. We're living in a 4 bedroom house, double garage, air conditioning, nice neighbourhood, we're not too far from a school (which is of no importance to us, but would be attractive to families) and we're within walking distance of downtown Cambridge.

Even buying stuff like clothes and shoes are cheap. There are outlet malls at most an hour in any direction. I can get a laptop computer, a really good one, for like 1000$ And because we're splitting up the house between 6 people, bills are relatively cheap. Food isn't even that big of an issue, since Hyatt gives us free meals (we're only supposed to have one a day, but if you leave a little earlier you can get breakfast, and you finish work before 8 you can get dinner) the food isn't good, like everything else here, but it's free!

And, big bonus. I'm finally not living with my parents. So it's time to grow up and become an adult.

Also, Hyatt is a worldwide resort chain. Once I finish here, I'll get a really good recommendation from Mikey, and maybe go to another Hyatt, (A hyatt park, which is a step above regency) in Australia, or Italy, or wherever else I wanna travel to.

I am learning here, it's just not about food. It's more about people, how to teach them to cook, how to manage and supervise and encourage them. So it's not all bad.

It's mostly just a change of goals now.That stupid mike, he's such an asshole. I'm writing this cuz he's reading over my shoulder, stupid voyueristic pervert. Getting off on this are ya?

*Mike interlude* Oh god baby. Yes. Oh yes.

*Brendon's interlude* ummm.... i'm glad the lease has changed over.........

Anyways, those are the pro's. It's not horrible here, it's just different. But I'm gonna go now. later.

The Pro's and the Cons

so I've been down here for a little over a month. And I think that's sufficient enough time to get a good analysis of the place where I've decided to dwell for a year and a half.

First off, the Con's.

Ugh, the food here SUCKS. Produce is poorer quality, (I had to look for almost 10 minutes to find an apple that wasn't bruised in the supermarket) Everything is just of a lower quality than it is in the West Coast. I think it's the attitude of the people here. They're all down south igotallthetimeintheworldandi'mnotgonnaworryaboutathing kinda attitude. While on the West Coast it's more of a Igotplacestogopeopletoseeandeverythingbetterbeperfectalongtheway kinda attitude. Which I think is more conducive to making better food and to the hospitality industry in general.
We have yet to find a good restaurant to eat. Everywhere we go, the food is salty, or overpriced, or loaded with msg, or just not very good to begin with. We end up cooking a lot at home. And even then it's still not the same. I'm afraid when I get home my tastebuds will be all messed up and nobody will hire me because I overcook everything, and add salt when it's already salted.
AGH! I HATE AMERICAN CHEESE! PROCESSED PIECE OF MONKEY GARBAGE! IT'S EVERYWHERE HERE! I GO THROUGH MORE AMERICAN CHEESE AT THE RESTAURANT THAN SWISS, CHEDDAR, AND PEPPERJACK COMBINED. It is infuriating to say the least. By the way, I don't think American cheese is ACTUALLY cheese. I'm not sure they use bacterial cultures to create it. It's more of a chemical cheese subsitute. Like squeeze e cheese, but with more chemicals.
The weather here is awful too, it can't make up it's mind. When I started walking to work this morning, it was overcast. 15 minutes later it was raining so hard it hurt my skin, then a couple minutes later it stopped. It went through this 4 times before I got to work! (it takes me an hour to walk) by the time I got to work I looked like I'd jumped in the river. All my clothes were soaking wet, even the shirt I kept in my backpack for the way home was soaked. I almost ruined my Classic Indian Cooking cookbook too! Then an hour after I'd started work, the sun came out! At least in B.C the weather stayed the same for a couple days at a time.
The people here DO NOT KNOW HOW TO COOK! I watched one of the Supervisors do a horrible job of peeling a canteloupe today. She had the right method, but the final result was a horrible hackjob! I can do better with a knife shorter than a pen lid! And yesterday Brenden was telling me about how his supervisor called him a racist comment right on the line (it's an open kitchen, there are people 5 feet away that can see everything.) Then, she turned her pockets inside out and said "Kiss the bunny on the nose!" (try it in the mirror, you'll get it) It's not so much that he was offended by this stuff, he probably gave as bad as he got. But she's a supervisor, and she's almost yelling racist and perverted jokes on the hot line. 5 feet away from the customers, how professional is that? Here's another one of her famous quotes. Me and the other canadian guys were quizing each other on food stuff. And Basmati comes up in a conversation, we were trying to find out where it comes from (the foothills of the himilayas) and she shouts out...."Basmati...that's a rice right!?"
I better get a raise pretty soon. I'm managing one of the outlets in every respect except for the job title and the pay. I'm working my butt off to make sure it doesn't go down in flames . And I'm getting paid less than the girl who doesn't know what goes into a guacomole. It's a downright piss off is what it is. It makes me wanna scream at all the cooks I'm training. And scream at all the servers (who don't know what they're doing either) And I don't like being an asshole. And that's what I'm turning into. If I'm gonna become this tyrannical asshole boss, I don't wanna cook anymore. I want to teach people, but I can't teach them if they won't listen! It drives me insane.
Now Erin is driving me crazy. Especially with the whole housework thing. Last night, after dinner. I watched her rinse her dishes and put them into the sink, right on top of my dishes. Later on that night, I did dishes, and Mike cleaned up the rest of the kitchen. She booted off upstairs to talk to people on msn and listen to Chris Rock comedy. Why is that everytime there is work to be done that would benefit the entire house, and not just her. She's off in her room, or going to bed early, or finding some other way to avoid the situation.
From the very beginning Erin has said she wanted to lay down some ground rules about housework and the splitting up of duties. But now that she has a chance, she's avoiding it. I told her today I wanted to talk to her about it when I got home. I've been home for 5 hours, and she's been "sleeping" the entire time. So what did I do while I waited for her to wake up? I de-boned the chicken we bought the other day, and started up a chicken stock. Then I cleaned up the entire kitchen....again. Then I figured out how we're all going to be paying for rent, electricity, and how much Sean and Bradley will owe us when they get down here. (the 29th) Then I came up here and started blogging. (which is turning out a lot longer than I thought) I forget where I was going with that, but GAH! she's getting on my nerves. I don't think I even can talk to her right now without calling her awful names and screaming.

I was going to talk about some of the Pro's of being here. But I'm too pissed off right now.

Bleh!

So......I'm already tired of the restaurant that I'm working in.

I'm managing it in every aspect except for the title and the pay. Half of my employees are Polish interns, and while hardworking, speak hardly any English, and have fewer skills. My best worker, Nesse (nee-see) is taking a Hospitality Management College course. While it does teach some cooking basics. It's more focused on actual management. (most of which is useless in a real professional kitchen anyways) So she can cook, kinda. And she can manage....kinda. But she's better than everyone else.

Today I just kinda let her run the line (the area where all the food that is being served is prepped) While I sat in the back of the kitchen, did prep work, and just supervised. I was really not into the whole taking charge and making sure things get done right mood today. I just wanted to do the work, and make sure we were ready for July 4th (busiest day, and probably weekend, of the year)

After the 4th, I get to start at the fine dining restaurant. Breakfast and Lunch, pantry station. It's still not challenging work. But at least I'll be able to make quality food. Me and Mike will be able to double team the lunch specials and stuff, so maybe we'll be able to make some REALLY nice food. And Chef Shean, the restaurant chef, has no qualms about putting good stuff on the menu, regardless of who it comes from.

We went for Sushi the other night.......B.C Sushi is SO much better. It's cheaper, fresher, and tastes better. Don't eat East Coast sushi. At least not if you've had West Coast sushi. Night and day, Night. And. Day!

I miss home.

OH woe is me!

So now I'm the one responsible for the house. The lease is now under my name. And I'm in it for 18 months. So if everyone decides to move out, and leave me on my own. I'm gonna have to pay 1500$ a month rent. That's quite a bit, even split among 4 people. (it'll be better once Sean and Bradley get down here though) Plus utilities and stuff. I'm worried that everybody will get sick of each other and want to move out. Then it'll turn into "well, I'll stay if blahblahblah moves out." And everything will go to hell here.

Brenden is already considering jetting of to Toronto. He says he's not learning enough here. And I can understand that. The food here is not the quality it was in Vancouver. And he had some really good job opportunities there. He used to manage his Dads greasy spoon restaurant. I'm not surprised he's not feeling challenged.

Mike and Erin have been pissing me off lately. They both haven't really grown up at all. Erin still never does any housework. She says she's done dishes, but none of us have ever seen her do them. Or any evidence of that. And Mike doesn't respect other peoples stuff. Brenden is pissed off at him, because he said he overheard Mike say that "Sharing the car with Brenden is hard enough." Sharing? excuse me? Are you paying the bills? Is the insurance in your name? Do you pay for gas? (this is what Brenden was saying) He wants all the privileges, and none of the responsibility.

I think I'm gonna get a car on my own. Me and Mike were thinking about going in together, but I'm reconsidering. I don't wanna have to share with him. I saw a truck by the highway the other day, 500$. I'm thinking about it. I know trucks are expensive to fuel, and insurance will be a bitch because I'm under 25. But at least they have competitive insurance companies down here. So I can at least shop around. And I don't drive a long distance to work either. I can walk there in an hour, and it's only like a 5 minute drive. Plus when I was driving the bosses Ford Bronco, man that thing was fun. I like driving trucks. You feel invincible on the road. Not to mention it would be handy to have a truck. (sorry dad, I know you always liked having a truck)

I've only been here for 3 weeks, and I have 1100$ american saved up. Bills will probably eat up about 500$ of that. That leaves me with 600$ to do with whatever I want. (I'll probably just save it for a rainy day) and Hurray for 3 paydays in June!

Alrighty, we're heading off to Hardee's for dinner. Tata for now.

happenings and going ons

so I've been here for 3 weeks now. So far I've transformed my restuarant into something a little more organized (the food still sucks though) Trained two new Polish interns, (they're already at least the equivalent of people who've been working there a year) a managed to navigate my kitchen brigade through the insaneness of a rush all by my lonesome.

I have only one word....Booyah.

My next item on the list of conquests is the fine dining restaurant, pantry section.

So home life has actually been pretty steady all things said and done. There are a few blips on the radar. (cougherindoesn'tdoanyhouseworkcough) Brenden bringing home one of the servers from the restaurant. Mike buying a bike, breaking it, fixing it, breaking it again. Brenden wants to sign the lease on the house over to my name in case he decides to split. We have both our names on the insurance. Little things like that that are dealt with quickly.

I'm starting to settle into a routine. Wake up, shower, brush teeth, walk to work, get there early, eat breakfast. Do my thing there, try and do some extra work and get extra hours. Go home, read, maybe play videogames, shower again, go to bed late. If the weather is nice me and Mike and Brenden will sit out on the roof and drink beer. (Mom is going to freak out when she reads this)

It's kinda cool, we have an open door policy, anyone we know is free to come here, hang out. Talk with us, or even just stay here and play videogames (as Justin is wont to do) I like that. I like that people feel welcome at our house, and even more importantly, they like us enough to want to hang out.

While I'm on the topic of the people here. I was pleasently surprised. Everyone has been extremely friendly. They've been helpful, kind, polite (in their own way) and very friendly. We got a leather couch, 2 lazyboys, an armchair, a bookshelf, 4 tv tables, a footrest, an etage (whatever that was) a dining room table. all for 320$! And they threw in a whole bunch of pots and pans for the hell of it! It was awesome!

I'm starting to get comfortable here....homesickness hasn't set in yet. Hopefully this place will become a home before it can hit me too hard. At the very least I can always phone up my family, or talk to people on msn. That'll help stave it off. At least for a while. I still feel like I'm gonna snap at work, and lose it on some poor server. Or breakdown and cry in the fridge. But I'll tackle that bridge when I come to it. (How exactly does one tackle a bridge?)

till the next entry then.

The first day

Ugh......


There is a name for the type of food I'm making...it's called Burn n'turn. Burgers, chicken burgers, kids fingers, crabcake sandwiches, chicken ceasar salads....etc etc. This is not challenging haute cuisine right here. As my trainer Jason put it "this is a glorified McDonalds."

Ugh, a year of culinary school for this (smacks self in forehead) Why didn't I stay at Ramada? Where beautiful food is the least that is expected of you. I never knew it was so difficult to make something tasty.

Then I worked Memorial day.

If you've ever worked in a restuarant you know the busy period is called "The Rush" or "You're in the Juice." (I'm toning it down a bit, chef's are known for colorful language) Well, normally, they last about 2, 2 and a half hours. THIS WAS 4 AND A HALF HOURS! 4 and a half hours of a bills list (order list) never less than 30 tables. Even for a 5 minute to cook burger, that's a hell of a long time to wait! At the end of the day we'd served over 750 covers. And the next day we did even more! What a way to start a new job.

So there is some challenge to it, I'll come out more organized and a lot faster than I was before. I'm pretty much in charge there, the only one there on weekdays is me, I'm responsible for all the ordering, all the prep, and making all the food. It's all self motivated, nobody checks in on me. So if I get in the juice, it's my own fault. But it's also kinda rewarding when you're booting out bills like nobodies business, and the chef comes to you the next day and says "You did all that and you didn't have to call for help on the line?"

It's not glamorous, but when it gets busy, the executive sous chef and the executive chef are right there on the line with me, slinging burgers. I guess it's a part of the industry and you'll never get past it. So I'll learn what I can, and countdown to the day when I get to move to the fine dining restaurant (July 4th! YAY)

well, this ended up not being so much about the first day as work in general. oh well. it's still a damn fine read ain't it?

The Road Trip

After much deliberation. I decided I would move to Cambridge Maryland to work for a Hyatt Regency resort there. The job was made available through an internship offer made to foriegn students. As one of my main goals is to travel, I decided to take the oppurtunity because it would give me a foot in the door with the Hyatt Hotel chain, which is global in span. And to move away from home for the first time. This was perfect for me.

We left May 19th. It was the beginning of 4 nights 5 days of mind numbing monotony.

Our first day, we went to the Sumas border crossing. There we got our passports stamped with a J-1 visa stamp. Meaning we were aliens allowed to work in the U.S. From there we navigated our way onto Interstate 90 going east. Going through the outskirts of Seattle. Our first day was pretty uneventful.

Then we hit Montana, the vast endless plains of nothingness (almost worse than saskatchewan) We stopped on the second day, and ate a a Famous Daves Pit BBQ restuarant. While eating, it started to rain, and rain....and rain and rain and rain. We're talking the size of golf balls size rain.

So we're sitting inside eating our better than average bbq dinners. Enjoying the comfortableness of the inside of the restuarant and being glad we weren't out in the rain. When Brenden (one of my fellow canadian interns) comes out of the restrooms, looks at Mike (the other canadian intern we travelled with) and says "We left the sunroof open!"

Brenden tosses the car keys to Mike, who is closer to the exit. Mike makes a one handed grab for the keys while leaping over our table. He sprints for the door, dodging waitresses with drink trays, elderly couples, and a baby carriage. He dashes through the crashing rain, narrowly missing getting hit by a bolt of lightning, with several cars exploding in the background from the mere force of the rain. He dives in through the sunroof and starts the car, closing the sunroof just in time to avoid a deer flying through the air.

ok, so maybe it wasn't that exciting, but I gotta jazz it up somehow.

So Brendan and Mike got to sit in puddles in the front seat for the rest of the day. While I stayed relatively dry in the back. mwahahahahahahahaha

Thus ended the day of day two, and began the night of day two.

All during the trip through washington state and Idaho state. We'd been seeing flashing lightning off in the distance. Well now...we caught up to the storm. I have never seen such frequent and intense lightning in my entire life. If you live on the prairies and you've seen a thunderstorm there. That's nothing compared to this. Every few seconds the sky was lit up and all of us were blinking from blindness. Once or twice the lightning struck the road just a few miles ahead of us. (or at least it looked that way) Mike tried to take a picture of a bolt of lightning, and they were so frequent he'd try to take a picture of one, and the camera would lag just enough for him to almost get the second one. I doubt I'll ever see another storm like it.

After stopping for the night of the second day, we began our morning of the third day.

Good news and bad news. Good news, it's sunny out and the weather is nice. Bad News...we're still in Montana, and heading into Wyoming.....another Saskatchewanesque (say that ten times fast) type of place. Full of nothing. Then...more bad news! the storm that had passed us by during the night, we caught up to again! and it was the second night all over again!

I think it was around this time that Mike and Brenden decided that one or two No-doses would be a good idea to get us farther today than we had been travelling in previous days. And since I was there, they decided I had to take one too....even though I was just sitting in the back of the car trying not to fall asleep. Well....I didn't have to try to fall asleep anymore. And I don't think Brendan or Mike blinked once for 3 hours. We managed to cover 1300 km that day. Woohoo!

On the 4th day we went through the most roadkilly stretch of highway yet, I lost count of how many dismembered, bashed, and eviscerated deer we passed on that day, but it's safe to say it was probably in the 40's or 50's.

Going through Chicago was fun too, we stopped at a Small gas station just off the highway, where the teller was behind bars, it was pump before you pay, and everyone was giving us dirty looks. (Probably cuz we still had a British Columbia license plate) Needless to say we drove as far as we could from that place. ( I think till 1 or 2 in the morning) Then it was only one more day till Cambridge.

Our last day was uneventful, we arrived at the hotel at around 3 in the afternoon. Where the executive sous chef (Micheal Wilks) met us, gave us a tour of the hotel, then took us to his house, were we had a excellent dinner prepared by his girlfriend gabby, who is a chatterbox by the way.

The next day, after crashing at Mikeys, we started work. And thus began our career at Hyatt.

My first day is the subject of another blog.

Culinary School

I started Culinary school at Vancouver Community College on March 29th, 2005. My teacher for the first 3 days was John Carlo Felicella. Now (and then) manager of Culinary Team Canada. He was excellent, even though we only had 3 days of him, he managed to show me a passion and dedication to food that was rivalled only by my highschool chef. (John carlo actually was Garde Mange for my highschool chef when he was working at the fairmont. ) After that Chef Glen O'Flaherty took over our class. He was to this day one of the best chefs I've ever worked under. Everything he said about food just reverberated through me. If I could have stolen his brain and melted it into mine, absorbing all his knowledge, I would have.

The rest of culinary school passed by in a blur. It was the best time cooking I've had so far. I made many connections, made a lot of friends (two of whom I'm living with right now in Maryland) It's too much stuff to cram into one blog entry. I'll probably make numerous references to it in future blogs. At which point I'll explain whats going on. That's enough for now, onto the next chapter!

In the beginning

In the beginning there was school, and from school there were contacts made, and paperwork was done, and eventually an agreement was made. I would move to Cambridge Maryland (USA) for 18 months, and work at the Hyatt Regency hotel there. If you're visiting this blog for the first time, and reading my first post, to get an idea of who I am. Then here goes.
My Name is Joshua @#%*^& (I'm not putting out my last name on the internet!) I'm a culinary arts graduate. Food is my passion, food is my life. I live to cook, and to make other people happy by stuffing the most beautiful food they've ever had in their lives down their throat. I'm a glutton for punishment. I'd rather break my own back then let anybody else do any work for me. If for any reason someone does a favor for me, it becomes a personal debt I must pay back. Other than that, I like to be silly and goofy, sing songs and whistle in the kitchen, and experiment with flavors I've never tried before (coconut glazed beets anybody?) I'm pretty easygoing, but I take my work seriously.
Anyways, I started cooking in Highschool. I was lucky enough to have a cafeteria program that offered Chef's training. The instructor was the former executive chef of the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. Very passionate and talented instructor. As one of his apprentices said (who later taught me at culinary school) "Everything he touches turns to gold." He was largely responsible for getting me passionate about cooking.

I can still remember the moment I decided I want to become a chef for a living. I was volunteering at a banquet for the highschool. I was standing there cutting onions, and my back was sore, and my eyes were stinging. I'd cut myself earlier so my hands were sore. But I was having fun, I was getting along with everyone, we were making some beautiful food. And I was having fun. So I realized...."if I have to do one thing for the rest of my life, it might as well be something I enjoy." So I threw myself wholeheartedly into everything cooking. I told my chef. "teach me to be a good chef." And he pushed me to better, and it wasn't until I got to culinary school did I realize just how much of a head start I got over everyone else.

Once I graduated Highschool, I worked for a brief while at a local
cafe with another extremely talented chef. That was one of the best summers of my life. I've yet to work in another such beautiful place. I was right in the middle of a park. Making simple but high quality food. It was gorgeous. From there he got me a job at a hotel about 20 minutes drive away.

Once I started at the hotel, I realized just how fucking little I knew about cooking. I was in way over my head. Luckily I had a tiny little east indian chef named Elvis....awesome guy. He pushed me and pushed me and believed in me. It took me 3 months, but I finally got the hang of things. And I was starting to cook real professional food.

I cannot tell you how awesome this hotel was. The management was excellent, the employees were excellent. Everyone was so passionate about making beautiful food and making people happy. I couldn't think of a more beautiful place to start off my professional cooking career.

After about 6 months of cooking at the hotel, and improving upon my skills more than I ever knew. I started Culinary school at Vancouver Community College. And thus began the next chapter of my career.