As the end of my culinary externship at the Austin Hyatt Regency nears, I find myself constantly thinking about what I’m going to do, what I want to do, and how I’m going to make money doing it. I’m beginning to really freak myself out, to say the least.
Classes at Le Cordon Bleu – Austin are finally over and done for me! Hooray!!! I loved my time spent there, but this is one tired culinary student. Between the 40 hours a week that I work at the Austin Hyatt Regency and the 35 hours a week I would spend at school, i was getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. It was not safe, to say the least. I burned or cut myself more times in the past six weeks than I have through out the rest of the program. (more…)
Is it wrong to want to do something less like grunt kitchen work and more like culinary journalism, real culinary journalism? The stories behind the food are tremendously fascinating and I think that readers and viewers think this as well. Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, you just want to skip all the hard work and become a chef or something.” At this point, I’m not so sure that’s what I want.
This year for Easter Brian and I made Beef Bourguignon. Because of the industry in which we work, we usually have to work on the weekends, so unfortunately we couldn’t go home to Houston or Orange, nor could we go to church, sadly, because I had to work Sunday morning.
So when I got home I started the whole wheat pasta, and Brian helped me roll it out, and I think we’ve established a new tradition for our little fledgling family. I’m definitely buying a hand crank pasta machine because they’re not too expensive and they make pasta making much easier and much more likely to happen on a regular basis. Fresh pasta is so delicious, it just warms you inside and makes you feel all fuzzy and happy. I would be perfectly happy with just fresh homemade fettuccini with butter, fresh chopped parsley, a touch of parmesan and a little salt.