Week 1 Day 4 - The Sink

Today at school it was much of the same routine that we have had all week. We got some good time in studying and reviewing for our ServSafe food safety test tomorrow. I am starting to feel a bit more confident about it. But, I would not be honest if I said I was not nervous. I can't even recall the last time I did an exam. It was THAT long ago! When Chef mentioned that he would supply a "#2" pencil I laughed. The last time I did such a test we called it an "HB" pencil. For those who don't know what that is, it was the next writing instrument after a rock and chisel.

After a workout at the nearby gym and some studying I decided it was time to not rely only on King Soopers or Safeway for my dinner. Boulder is known as one of the "foodiest" cities in the USA. If I am working on a culinary program I had better get out and try some of the local food. After an extensive internet search (Yelp, Urbanspoon, Google, and the Food Network web site) I figured that a place recommended by Guy on "Diner's Drive-ins, and Dives" was worth my time and what little money I have.

So I found myself at "The Sink" - a true college dive. The atmosphere is truly for the college-aged -- low ceilings where you can write your name, cool artwork from the 60's on the walls, lights covered in stickers, an extensive bar, funky and fun-loving servers, loud music (there is NO way I know the bands), CU Buffs logos everywhere, and me (old enough to be the father of everyone else here). But, you do not have to be young to appreciate the place. The food is great and the place is fun for all ages.

Guided by Guy, I chose the Cowboy Rueben (a grilled sandwich with brisket, cheddar cheese, and their special BBQ sauce). The meat was tender and tasty and the sauce (a Kansas City style BBQ) had a nice balance of heat and flavour. This came with a tangy and refreshing cucumber slaw and sweet potato fries that were nice and crispy on the outside and soft interior.

It did make me think about what makes a good and memorable meal. What is better: A fancy "fine dining" experience with white table clothes and $25-$40 entrees that serve 200 covers on a Friday night OR a lovable college dive and $10 entrees that serve 800 covers on that same Friday night? It is somewhat unfair and, in the end, pointless to compare them. They are offering different things to different clientele. Granted, the skills and techniques needed to bring you an excellent froi-gras are significantly more than grilling a sandwich and fries. But, one has to appreciate a restaurant that has been in business since 1923. A location down the street has seen many many "fine dining" places come and go over that time.

One offers fantastic ingredients, creativity, and artists expressing themselves through food. The other gives us simple comfort food cooked by college students slaving away to pay for their education who may have only learned the fry station a week ago. One is accessible by only those with enough disposable income to spend $100 per person on a meal. The other is frequented by rich, poor, students, professionals, or those in the midst of a career change and struggling to follow a dream. In the end, both offer an atmosphere where friends can gather to laugh, enjoy time together, feel served and cared for, and where the food (whether fancy or comforting) is something that offers a shared experience and can be considered good and memorable.

I know that I am gifted - and spent many years - at serving people and creating "spaces" for young and old to retreat, to be refreshed, to fellowship, and to be renewed. I pray that over the next six months I develop more skills, techniques, and passion to serve people and creating good and memorable experiences with good and memorable food.

(c) Charles Neil Riley - 2012

Week 1 Day 2 - Pathogens, Bacteria, and Toxins, oh my

There is so much to learn about food safety. It is surprising that there are not more food-borne illness outbreaks across the country. In one week we have to learn about food-borne illnesses, food safety, temperature controls, food services personnel personal hygiene, the FDA food codes, local and state regulations, and on and on and on .... We spent a lot of today going through the "ServSafe" for Managers certification material in preparation for a big test on Friday.

The hard thing is that we all just want to get into the kitchen! We are itching to start working with food. Chef Greg tried to alleviate the pressure by giving us a brief tour of the kitchens. He also said that a 747 airplane uses half of its fuel for a trip in the takeoff; we also have to put do a lot before we start cooking food. The metaphor was not comforting and we were not really appeased.

We did spend some important time getting to know one another. The sixteen of us couldn't be much more different. There are so many varied stories and backgrounds represented in our little class. There are those who have worked in the industry and those who haven's seen the inside of a professional kitchen. There is a single parent, one who lost his girlfriend to a sudden death only a few weeks ago, a young guy who got laid off from teaching after only a couple years, a girl who spent many years growing up in Dubai, a massage therapist, as well as an assortment of fresh out of high school "kids". We are kinda like the cast of the TV show Survivor! Only we are hoping that each of us stay and make it through to the end, rather than trying to vote each other off.

We did a fun little exercise to help get us to know one another. We used a series of questions to interview another and then share what we have learned with the group. We have a great group of students. It will fun getting to know each others stories.
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Ten Commandments of a Chef - Daniel Boulud
• keeps knives sharp
• work with the best people
• keep your station clean and tidy, be organized
• shop wisely; use everything
• season with precision
• master the heat
• learn the world of food, try everything and anything
• know the classics (techniques and ingredients) and the basics
• accept criticism
• keep a journal of your recipes, successes, failures, and what you have learned

(c) Charles Neil Riley - 2012

Week 1 Day 1 - It Begins

I was quite aware of my attitude and feelings as I headed to, and arrived, at the first day of culinary school. It has been a very very long time since I've gone to classes. I was surprisingly both excited and calm. I was looking forward to the day and I felt a general sense of peace in my spirit. There was no need to hunker down in my car and watch people arrive and build up the confidence to get out of the car and pack my self over to the classroom. This felt right. I was doing the right thing and I truly sensed that I was in the right place. Deep down I knew that I am being directed and watched over by God.

Mind you, I am under no illusion that this is going to be a breeze. At 49 years old, with a herniated disc, hardly enough financial resources, and not having nearly the culinary experience that would have been optimal to start a culinary school, I am not so naive to believe that everything will be easy and that a sense of calm will always be there. This is going to be intense and tough; I get that.

Even after the brief introductions at the orientation of that last week I could tell that all the students were arriving and trying to figure out who was going to be along side them for the next 6+ months. I was doing the same. Who was that person with the lip ring? What kind of person was the quiet girl in the corner? How old is that woman? The woman who had now arrived for class clearly was closer to my age - whew! I was not alone. I was not the only person who was the age of most of the student's parents!

But, even more pressing than what our fellow students were like. We all wanted to get to know more about our Chef Instructor. Who was our leader, our guide, our drill sergeant, our teacher? Who was going to regiment our lives (actually only from 7am until 1pm; Monday to Friday). Who was going to mold us into a chef? After arranging tables and carefully choosing our spots and who we were daring to sit beside we were finally introduced in a much fuller way to Chef Greg. To my surprise and delight, we found out that he is a friendly, lovable, and funny goofball! =)

It became clear that he is interested in seeing us doing our best and helping us to find out who we are, discover our passions, and grow in our knowledge and skills in the culinary world. There was little evidence that he wanted to stand over us with a large wooden spoon waiting to whack us when we get things wrong. Chef Greg is all about teaching us by walking along side and encouraging us. He does not come acress as a drill sergeant. He is an educator and a mentor. Again, whew!

He has a wealth of experience serving great numbers of people. He has served a few from the line for an evening and served thousands and thousands over a weekend. His experience includes being the executive chef at the Pepsi Center overseeing many different food services. He has done Bill Gates wedding, the DNC convention in Denver, been a regional chef for a large corporate oraganization, opened Google's corporate offices' restuarant, fed crowds at golf tournaments, fed dignitaries, and meals for thousands that required a convoy of semi-trucks full of food. I loved hearing all this. I am excited to be learning under a chef that has plenty of banquet, buffet, and convention experience. This is the type of thing I would love to do (obviously at a smaller scale). He is a master organizer - I like that too.

But, in the end, he cares about our little group of sixteen aspiring chefs. He wants to insire and encourage us to do our best, learn, and have fun doing it.

"Learn the techniques of cooking. At the same time, have fun. Fun makes good food" - Chef Greg

(c) C. Neil Riley
April, 30, 2012

Orientation

My culinary school adventure began a couple days ago. 14 students (2 were not able to be there) gathered in one of the kitchens at the school for an "orientation" to our next 6 months.  We were introduced to a line up of staff that varied from the career services personnel to the director of admissions. They gave us an overview of the program and services at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts.

But, what I and most of the other students really wanted were three things ....

(1) to get our "kit" which included our books, the oh-we-are-looking-good uniform, and the oh-we-love-gadgets knife and equipment set. The books weighed more than I did and I admit I am nervous about all the reading I have to get accomplished - wow! The uniform was a set of burgundy-coloured chef's jackets (makes us look very sharp), black baggy pants (hardly stylish), and an assortment of caps, towels, etc.. But the coolest was the set of knives and equipment in a knife bag that was the size of small suitcase that we have to carry around with us every day.  I was patient (for perhaps 10 minutes after I left the building) to open this up.

(2) to meet our "Chef Instructor".  Unlike much post-secondary education this type of culinary school depends on a class having a single "chef instructor" who will lead us through the intensive training regimen over the next six months.  This person is best thought of as our boot camp drill instructor!  The head chef instructor, Chef Michael, clearly explained that we will have little time for our own creativity (particularly during the first portion of the program). Their job is to teach, and ours to learn, a great deal of procedures and techniques that are not open to debate or experimentation. Escoffier developed and wrote about it over a century ago, generations of cooks have followed his techniques since, and therefore it is good enough for us. Period. Our program, given to us in a large binder, is laid out day-by-day (and likely minute-by-minute). Our chef instructor, Chef Greg, will drill us through correct technique, correct uniforms, and correct procedures.  I doubt he, or the program, is so rigid as I presently fear it will be. But, better to be prepared mentally for that than expect something more laissez-faire and then have to do whatever the culinary school equivalent of US Marine boot camp push-ups or attitude adjustments my CI feels is necessary. "Yes, Chef!" “OORAH!”

and most importantly (3) to meet our fellow students.  I was pretty interested in meeting the other culinary boot camp members; with whom I would be spending a great deal of time for the next 6+ months. Okay, I'll admit it. I was not just "interested" I was very nervous about it!  As a 49-year old I was worried about how I would fit in to a young-person's world.  It was very evident that, in fact, we were all sizing one another up.  As I came into the kitchen, and as more and more students arrived, my worst fear was realized. I was clearly the oldest person there. Ugh.  I'm guessing the next oldest is a guy about the same age as my oldest son. That "kid" also fed into another anxiety of mine  - he has been cooking on the line in restaurants for eight years! Granted, I was also to learn that some of the other students (as young as 18) had never stepped into a kitchen before. Whew; that was somewhat comforting. As I blog over the next six months I'll introduce you to some of my fellow students; some of which I  have already learned have some very interesting stories.  I just hope the other students stop calling me "sir"!  The first one to call me "grandpa" may just end up "accidentally" having too much salt in their brown sauce! ;-)

The adventure begins Monday!

A plea for help.

This really is not the kind of post anyone should probably put up at the very start of a blog. But, alas, timing is everything.  I look forward to sharing about so many different things. Unforunately, this is a medium at my dsiposal to share something, a pressing and immediate need.  What follows is a ltter that I have prepared and am distributing to anyone who is interested about the situation Julia and I find ourselves in.  Thank you for reading it through, your prayers, and, if you can, assing it on to others.
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Dear friends and family,

It has been more than a year since our family began to walk through a journey we had never planned on or ever wished to endure.  Since the December 16, 2010 explosion in Afghanistan that forever tragically altered the life of our son, Daniel, and changed our family we have lived through great suffering, sorrow, anger, and immense loss.  We have also experienced joy, happiness, and great gratitude for all the love, support, and encouragement from church, friends, and family.  Julia and I chose to follow the only path that we could. We decided to support Daniel as much as we could.  We knew, and have since seen, that the need for direct and constant support of family was extremely important to the recovery and rehabilitation of this young US Marine, and any in such a situation.  We believe it made a huge difference in his finding his "new normal." 

While serving our son in such a way was one of the greatest honours and privileges of my life, this commitment to family came at a great cost.  I had to give up my job and, therefore, we ended up losing our home and much of our possessions.  Yet it was a cost we were willing to endure.   After the joy of seeing Daniel recover enough to care fully for himself we moved on to the next stage of our journey.

Unfortunately, employment has been very hard to come by.  Employment in my old career, over 25 years working for the church, is virtually non-existent.  After spending much time unemployed, working entry-level jobs, grabbing the odd day-labor opportunities, and picking up part-time work as I could, we have come to a point of having to make some choices.  In discernment with friends and family I have felt that this is a time for a career change and therefore an opportunity to set us up for the future.

In the search for what is next for me I looked back at what gave me great joy.  That led me to think of my responsibilities, at times, as the lead cook for the retreat and conference center I was most recently directing.  I have always had a heart for, and I am gifted at, serving others and creating environments that allow people to retreat, to be renewed, and become refreshed.  The culinary world affords many opportunities to combine these gifts and my love of cooking.  When presented with this idea a couple of close relatives responded, "that makes so much sense, you have loved cooking and baking since a little kid."

To make the leap into the world of culinary arts I began working a seasonal job at a restaurant kitchen in the Vail Valley in Colorado.  I learned a great deal with that experience.  I have also talked to many in the food and beverage world seeking their advice.  It has become clear that to move forward I needed to go back to school.  The best time to do such schooling is during the "mud season" and summer so that I can return to the Vail Valley for the winter season.  To accomplish this I researched schools and settled on a desire to attend the well respected Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado.  I have been accepted and tentatively could begin April 30th.  Attending school in Boulder allows me to go to school during the week and return to home on the weekends.  Julia will continue to work in the Vail area. Therefore, we do not need to be uprooted again and we can continue to establish ourselves in a wonderful and supportive community.

My education would hopefully come in three distinct phases: (1) formal and intense study at the culinary school (May-November 2012); (2) a requisite externship (a self-sustaining paid job at a restaurant in the Vail Valley from December 2012 through April 2013); and (3) an optional international learning experience (my hope is to follow my passion and learn in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East - with Julia joining me - from May through October 2013).

This leap into a new career is, however, a costly venture at a time when we have very few resources at our disposal.  The total cost for the first phase (tuition, fees, and living costs) is approximately $45,000.  For this part we have already secured some student loans, gifts, and savings. With these, combined with anticipated wages, we are left with a deficit of about $11,000.  The second phase is basically self-funding.  While optional, the final phase would give me a huge lift up in my ability to find good and steady employment. For the study-abroad opportunity we would need additional assistance of between ten and twelve thousand dollars.

Caring for Daniel and trying to reestablish ourselves was only possible through the very generous out-pouring of love, care, and support from friends, family, and those we never had the privilege to meet in person.  To enable this change in our lives and to set us up for a future where we can be secure and give back through service to others we need people to invest in us and invest in our future as servants to people through a ministry of food.  After school, and externship, and hopefully an international "stage”, we hope to land in a place where we can serve others through creating a food and beverage environment that allows people to retreat, refresh, and be renewed.  We ask for assistance to make this dream and plan to come to fruition.

There are a few ways you can help:

·         You can give a single or monthly gift to help with tuition and school fees (Assistance for this can be sent directly to us or by sending the gift directly to the school on our behalf - address below).
·         You can give a single or monthly gift directly to us to help with phase one living costs.
·         The costs we have outlined does not include housing for me while in Boulder.  I am planning to camp or live in spare rooms or couches of generous people in the Boulder area. (housing in Boulder is expensive and would cost between $5,500 and $6,000).  If you are able to help with this please contact me.
·         If you are interested in helping us set up or help fund the study-abroad component please contact me.
·         If you are unable to assist us financially we do request your prayers for us and continued prayers for our family.

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

I invite you to follow our journey at my new blog at  http://rileywanderingbutnotlost.blogspot.com.
You also can look back at the story of Daniel's injury and recovery at http://danielcwriley.blogspot.com.

C. Neil and Julia Riley

4923 Lake Creek Village Dr.

#15-201; Edwards, CO, 81632

wanderingbutnotlost@msn.com

303-748-8739

The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts

637 S. Broadway, Suite H
Boulder, Colorado, 80305
303-494-7988
www.escoffier.edu

The wandering begins

"Wandering but not lost" is a description given to one of my favourite fictional characters, Aragorn (from JRR Tolkien's, The Lord of the Rings). It is one of the many titles and descriptions of this man and king.  I understand the title to mean that though he looks like he is wandering without purpose or plan he is, in fact, not really as lost as he looks.  At times he is sure of his path even though others do not see it.  But, there are many moments that the path he follows is known only to something greater than himself.

The above is what my life feels like.  Sometimes I have had a course laid out before me that I am following.  I can be confident of where I am heading regardless of whether others see or misunderstand that path. There also times in a day, or in my life, that I do not know or comprehend fully the journey I am on.  But, somehow I know and trust that there is something greater than I directing or leading me.  Or, at the least, wandering with me.  I may wander, but I am not lost.

This blog is a record of my journey.  I hope to include not only what I, and my family, are doing now, but to include stories of my past and to share my hopes for the future.  Within this I will include what I see along the path - whether by words or pictures. I hope what I share and offer will encourage, enlighten, challenge, and maybe even make you laugh.  I invite you to wander along with me.

If you want to read about the journey I travelled with my son, Daniel, as he recovered from an IED explosion in Afghanistan I direct you to that blog at http://danielcwriley.blogspot.com  It is full of stories of sadness, joy, and a few really funny moments.