Blog #5 - Brainstorming and Exploring Cleveland

In preparation for our final project where we will prep and cook for 100 people at the Rise and Dine event at the Ronald McDonald House, Chef Lyons drove us early from Hawken to his house to come up with a final menu, with the theme being Mediterranean food. We all shared our ideas which we brainstormed over the weekend, and the list became: hummus/veggies for our appetizers, salad with oregano Greek dressing, Gazpacho soup, Israeli couscous, and a roasted Spanish chicken. Chef Lyons wrote down everything, and the ingredients we had to purchase. Also, our timeframe gave us a little under a week to test everything on the menu. At around 9:30 am, we headed to Dean's Supply, which is basically a department store for chefs. Although it is an exclusive shopping place for chefs, Chef Lyons told us we could use his business name in the future if we need to buy anything for college there, which is a huge bonus since everything there is extremely discounted and top-notch quality. For lunch, we went to visit Tri C Culinary School and ate at Pura Vida, a restaurant that is connected to the main atrium of the culinary school. We went to Pura Vida to explore different flavors and Chef wanted us to reflect on the food, how they made it, and what we would change about it if we were making it ourselves. After eating, we were given a tour of Tri-C's culinary school and it was quite impressive. Their facilities were incredibly well designed, and they hire many of the best chefs in the Cleveland area. Their tuition is only 7k a year so it would be a great place to go for culinary school. The only downside is the intensity. While Chef had grueling classes every day when he was in culinary school, Tri C's program only has maybe 1-2 classes per week. After today, I was introduced to a lot of cool perspectives and gained insight into the culinary industry and many professional kitchens.

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