MORTINI's CalorieKing blog
Saturday, Feb 7 2009 - Oye.
View MORTINI's food & exercise for this day
Had my first cooking class today. I wasn't sure what to do about food - they say that lunch is a part of the course, but I didn't know what that meant. So, I took a few power bars and went to class. It took *forever* to get there on the subway this morning - I should have been super early - what normally takes 15-20 minutes took over an hour. It was nuts.
But, the class went well. The instructor is an actual chef who has a restaurant. He clearly has a passion for food - which is always helpful when taking a class like this. It was the same for my photography class I took - the guy teaching it had a passion for photography, so that ends up making it better.
We're in a pretty small kitchen - one of the smaller that the Institute has, I suppose, which I suppose is fitting for NYC. The larger group got broken up into smaller groups - and each group works on a menu. The other groups were quicker than we were - nobody in our group really took charge. Some people had things that they wanted to learn how to do - or do better, but I'm kind of indifferent to that. I have no problem working through things myself at home.
One of my general issues is self-awareness of skill level. When you ask me how I am at something, internally, I compare myself to someone I consider to be good at it (Even though they may or may not be). So, while I feel I don't know that much about cooking, in reality, I know more than a lot of people, and I'm willing to experiment - something a lot of people aren't. One thing that I strongly dislike about the way that art is taught (Yes, cooking is an art) is that you're taught to emulate someone else, not to find your own voice. As with any art medium, there's various techniques to master and once you know a little of them, you can start to experiment and find things that you like. Probably one slight difference with food is that people tend to expect certain types of ingredients grouped together generally speaking. But, that generally goes for most art forms, as well.
Time to make the donuts!
I mean. Time to do weights!
But, the class went well. The instructor is an actual chef who has a restaurant. He clearly has a passion for food - which is always helpful when taking a class like this. It was the same for my photography class I took - the guy teaching it had a passion for photography, so that ends up making it better.
We're in a pretty small kitchen - one of the smaller that the Institute has, I suppose, which I suppose is fitting for NYC. The larger group got broken up into smaller groups - and each group works on a menu. The other groups were quicker than we were - nobody in our group really took charge. Some people had things that they wanted to learn how to do - or do better, but I'm kind of indifferent to that. I have no problem working through things myself at home.
One of my general issues is self-awareness of skill level. When you ask me how I am at something, internally, I compare myself to someone I consider to be good at it (Even though they may or may not be). So, while I feel I don't know that much about cooking, in reality, I know more than a lot of people, and I'm willing to experiment - something a lot of people aren't. One thing that I strongly dislike about the way that art is taught (Yes, cooking is an art) is that you're taught to emulate someone else, not to find your own voice. As with any art medium, there's various techniques to master and once you know a little of them, you can start to experiment and find things that you like. Probably one slight difference with food is that people tend to expect certain types of ingredients grouped together generally speaking. But, that generally goes for most art forms, as well.
Time to make the donuts!
I mean. Time to do weights!
0 comments so far.