You may have noticed that this blog has been all but abandoned for the past twelve weeks. Perhaps you thought that I had given up on cooking all together? The truth is quite the opposite. For the past three months I have been attending The Community Culinary School of Northwestern Connecticut, honing my skills so that I would be ready to make the leap from home cooking to the professional kitchen. During my time at school, I spent cumulative hours chopping, slicing, and dicing my way towards more refined knife skills. I made gallons of mother sauces, including Bechamel, Veloute, and Espagnole. I learned the difference between eggs as I knew them and eggs as they should be. I made soups, salads, french toast, scones, pies – the list goes on and on. The vast amounts of food that was made could boggle your brain, but the most remarkable thing about the countless dishes that my fellow students and I created was their destination.
The Community Culinary School of Northwestern Connecticut is a special place. What makes it unique goes beyond the abilities of the instructors, the strength of the curriculum, or even its peculiar location. (The school is hidden behind a local church, in their banquet hall kitchen.) What makes this school so extraordinary is its philosophy of goodwill, sustainability, and generosity. The school works with the local food bank in New Milford, supplying it with around 2,000 meals per session. The students prepare meals according to the program's curriculum, pack them up, and deliver them to those in need. Nothing goes to waste. Scraps are saved to make stocks. Extra produce is cooked off and sent to the food bank or soup kitchen. When something can no longer be used it is composted. Local farms donate produce to the food bank and the school, promoting awareness of local agriculture, seasonal cooking, and the community economy. Every day, the program instructors, Dawn and Blythe stress the importance of their core values: sustainability, responsibility, and excellence, so that the school doesn't just provide food to the community, it provides restaurant quality cuisine. These meals are not meant to just fill stomachs. They are meant to give recipients something to lo0k forward to – a special meal in an economic time when they are unlikely to treat themselves to much. Food lovers understand how special a meal like this can be. A great meal can be a highlight in an otherwise dark and daunting week. Many of us take the luxury of a dinner out for granted, but at Community Culinary its value is understood.
My experience with The Community Culinary School of Northwestern Connecticut was nothing short of spectacular. I will never forget the amazing amount of effort that the Executive Director, Dawn Hammacott, and the Chef Instructor, Blythe Roberts, put forth for each and every one of the students in my session. They worked at full capacity every single day of our session, with a great balance of patience and realistic expectations. Kitchens are not always easy to work in. I know from experience. The instructors at the school did their best to be kind and allow students to find themselves. As soon as they did, they were right there to push each one of us in order to make us faster, more precise, and to think more creatively, all of which are indispensable attributes in the food industry.
I think of the school as the cradle of my career. During my internship, I made it through kindergarten. Yesterday, grade school began as I walked through the doors of my first real cooking job. I'm looking forward to what's next.