Just recently, I took a leave of absence from my cooking school as a teacher, and reversed roles. I had the chance to be a student once again. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) honored me with a scholarship grant to study at the famed Culinary Institute of America, more popularly known as the CIA. What ensued was a refreshing and rewarding experience that made me rethink and review my role as chef and teacher. The CIA is one of the top culinary schools and probably the best in the world. It is the oldest in the US, just recently marking its 60th year of existence. The university is located at Hyde Park in Duchess County, New York, USA. The past month had been demanding of my time and energies, but it was worth every single second. During my one-and-a-half month sojourn, I skipped the same old tourist activities, such as sightseeing, hobnobbing, getting in touch with old friends, and shopping. It was actually next to impossible, because there was hardly any means of public transportation. Because of this, I rented a car, which took me to school and back to my lodge. I would go to class during the day and come home at night to review school notes, eventually plopping down to bed in exhaustion. This made me sleep peacefully, like a baby. I stayed at Quality Inn, which was five minutes shy of the CIA campus grounds.
I arrived on a Sunday, and, just like a good Catholic schoolgirl, went to Mass at the chapel inside the school campus. I was thrilled to bump into former students of mine who were currently studying in the campus. It just goes to show that the Filipino faithful are still faithful and go to worship despite the controversies cropping up these days.
Sounds stressful, but not to me. It was a refreshing change of pace to be thinking about notes, instead of running the business at home or something to that effect. I was glad to have studied in the school with the most certified chefs and an outstanding faculty. The prestigious academy estimates a network of over 37,000 graduates, most of them leaders in the food industry. During my one month stay, I took the following courses: "Soups, Stocks and Sauces"; "Cooking Principles"; "Accompaniments and Side Dishes"; "The Fundamentals of Flavor Dynamics"; "Small Dishes, Big Flavors: Appetizers and First Courses"; and "Breakfast and Brunch Cookery."
Within the venerated campus are five award-winning restaurants open to the public: the American Bounty, Apple Pie Bakery Café, Escoffier Room, the Ristorante Caterina de Medici, and the St. Andrews Café. An extraordinary dining experience awaits anyone with a taste for good food for each restaurant offers a distinct cuisine in a variety of settings. For instance, the Ristorante Caterina de Medici bursts with authentic Italian flavor, and what makes it better is that one enjoys the food within the boundaries of a magnificent Tuscan villa.
During afternoon breaks I would pine for dessert, and I would head off to the Apple Pie Bakery located inside the main entrance of Roth Hall. I would savor my order of Espresso Cognac Mousse exquisitely whipped up by the talents of the CIA’s baking and pastry arts students and faculty. Talk about cafeteria food. I don’t know of any other student who eats as well as we did in the CIA campus grounds. And who should I meet there as if by twist of fate, but another Pinoy culinary star in the making in the person of Tom Pestano, one of the more promising students in my Essential Baking and Pastry class. I beamed with pride when I learned that he was graduating from CIA with honors. I wanted to attend his graduation rites, but unfortunately I had a class at the time of his graduation. It warms the heart to know that fellow Filipinos are passionate about food and are committing themselves to learning from the best to be the best.
My daily routine would be to wake up at the break of dawn and head to the school’s dining hall as early as 5:30 a.m. for breakfast. It was not hard to wake up early what with the delightful, fulfilling meals to start the day right. I was entitled to breakfast, lunch and dinner since I had a full day schedule. My class would be from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., resuming at 2 p.m. and ending at 8:30 p.m. It sounds funny, but I actually looked forward to waking up each day and going to class, not the least scared or stressed at the prospect of being given a know-it-all sneer or a haughty retort during class discussions. I adored my teachers. They were genial, personable, and very accommodating.
Each day for me was an exciting one. The class would start with a lecture, and then we’d head to the kitchen for hands-on preparation. Needless to say, the equipment was simply state of the art. Although one course that I took was a back-to-basics one, the approach was refreshing and helped me refine my skills. Even the simple procedure of cooking eggs in different variations, from poached and sunny side up to whipping up an omelet was very informative and, should I say, entertaining. I learned some new things in charcuterie, like sausage making, curing, terrines and pates, and more. Later on, we would offer constructive criticism on each other’s finished product, analyzing what went wrong and how to rectify it. I was with a group of 15 students, all established professionals in their respective fields. There was a chef for a casino, two food scientists (known here as food technologists) and there was Michelle, a career shifter. She is a highly successful investment banker working for Chase Bank. Although she was cashing it in, she felt beaten down by work and burnt out. She needed a break, a change of scenery. Now, she is happier in her current state as a caterer. It’s funny but true that in some cases it is not money that counts, but in the end it is satisfying the growling in the tummy that really matters. We all got along well because we came there with the same reason in mind. And we certainly got more than we bargained for.
(To be continued)