Culinary School

I know that I haven't blogged in quite some time and I feel incredibly guilty. But let me explain...I have just completed my fifth week of culinary school at the Natural Gourmet Institute.  After attending Fran Costigan's Vegan Baking Boot Camp there over the summer, I remember walking away feeling fully inspired, loving it, and thinking I’d never actually have the guts to apply and take on this full-time commitment. Running a healthy cookie company while teaching fitness classes at Physique 57, there was no way that this could be possible. The school is so unique to other culinary programs, as it includes classical training and cookery technique with a health-supportive and natural foods curriculum.  I will learn everything from French and Japanese knife skills to how foods contain healing and medicinal properties.  The first week alone I learned and practiced dozens of ways to cut a vegetable, I tasted distinctive fruits and vegatables, and I sat in on lectures covering various topics such as serving styles and food-borne illnesses.  I have since been introduced to every grain and bean that exsists, herbs and spices that I had never heard of, sea vegetables, soy proteins and whole foods lectures on the yin and yang and other theories on food energies. My fingers are cut up, my arms are sore, my feet ache, and my legs are usually swollen at the end of each day, and yet I couldn’t be happier. If you know me, or read my blog, you know that I have an obsession for food, in particular healthy foods, as well as a passion and need for movement. In order to live a healthful and balanced life, I believe that these two things go hand-in-hand. I am hoping to take my knowledge and skills to the next level and I think that this program will be a major stepping stone in that direction. I have already been introduced to so many things, I am excited to see what all is to come over the next several months. As life is handed to us all, sacrifices and changes were made in order to take on this challenge. I do look forward to getting back to the fitness world once I complete the program though I hope it will be with a new and different outlook, combining a culinary degree with my exsiting knowledge and background in movement and health. I invite you to stay with me along my journey to becoming a natural chef.  Please continue to support O'Cookies and follow along!