Wendings of a Gypsy Soul - May 5th, 2007
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12:38 am
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So here I am writing again at the end of yet another block. This one puts me six weeks out from my projected externship start date. How does time get away from one like that?
I finished Cuisines of Asia. During this fourteen day period, I learned to roll sushi, stir-fry with the best of them and identify a number of ingredients I was partially aware of before I started the class, but with whom I am now on a first name basis...the nahm prik pao and I get along very well (spicy shirmpy paste...yummy!). It was a very challening class for many reason, not least because Chef Pardus is very, very demanding. I learned oodles of things and had a lot of fun with the food which is entirely the point, no?
On Monday, I begin Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Cookery. It's a twelve day block which we begin with breakfast. Day 1 class start time? That's right 130am. AM! ante-meridian. True story. I'm currently trying to figure how I'm going to adjust my sleep pattern to match my class schedule for the first four days. Ugh. It's one of those rites of passage kind of things though. Everyone who goes through the culinary program here has to do it. It's a bonding experience. Like amoebic dysentary was in Chad or Dis-O was at MHC.
So I'm knee-deep in the externship search. I've decided to pursue some slighty odd possibilities. Like Singapore. And stuff. I'm not entirely sure. Not that I'm stumbling blindy in the dark reaching for anything. You know me...I'm not a just anything kind of person...but I'm opening up to perhaps a less beaten path. Of course, when you're goal is to take over the world, any path'll work just fine, yes?
Spring has (sort of) sprung here in New York. There's a beautiful Snowy White Blossom tree just outside my res hall. Think Anne of Green Gables Snow Queen. Lovely. And tulips and the trees are budding and the afternoons are gloriously sunny and warm and comfortable. I live across from a pond that has a waterfall and at night, when it's not too cold, I like to fall asleep listening to that sound. Falling water is one of my favorite sounds (and one of my favorite pieces of architecture too- thank you FLW). I hate cold. And the grey of winter. But sometimes (just sometimes) I feel like Spring makes up for it three-fold.
Jose Andres was on campus on Thursday. He came to deliver the commencement speech today. One of the best parts about this school is the many exceptional industry leaders we attract who want to talk to the students. I love when the Chefs come, flailing their passion for food and drink around the theatre. It's a phenomenal experience to be allowed to truly delve into the mind of someone who is so incredibly a genius in their field. It's a great privilege. Andres held up a glass of water and proclaimed that in its simplicity, it's very grand. He said that often, when he got stuck on something, he'd go back to the humble glass of water to find out who he was and where he was going. He talked about food as experience. He asked the questions: what is it to eat light? To eat noise? How can we capture the first three seconds of eating that are pure pleasure? What's next? He was incredible. Food as communication. Experience. It was like the first time I read Charles Ludlam and I was captured imemdiately by his theatre of the ridiculous. A way of challenging norms, reinventing ideas but deeply, deeply committed to tradtion and the refinement of it. It is an incredible thing to stand in the shadow of a genius. Yesterday, I did.
So life continues, as it tends to do. And deep down, I am sublimely content.
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