The blogging experience..

So this may potentially be my last blog entry, and though I have struggled with maintaining entries in a timely manner. When I have taken the time to sit down and type out my thoughts, I have found the whole thing to be a bit therapeutic. The ability to type out your deepest thoughts about subjects that most of the time people could legitimately care less to hear your opinion about is something that anyone could find enjoyment with. I had two blogs about sodas, and even talked shamelessly about a box of junk food targeted to drunks and stoners. I really enjoyed putting my own wit and charm into each paragraph and hope the three people who may have taken any time to read them have enjoyed the ride through the weeks. It was a great experience, and something that I REALLY should do on a weekly basis as I continue on this journey just so that I can have all my thoughts and opinions about food recorded so I can watch myself develop throughout my career...That would be something worth blogging about.

Healthy Cooking

I have been given the opportunity to partake in a healthy cooking course at my school that will be taught by a master chef. I am both nervous and excited to be able to take such a class. I am excited for obvious reasons, to learn how to cook not only for myself, but for those around me in a way that is delicious AND good for them. I am nervous though, to see just how bad I have been treating my body with my cooking and the cooking of others, and to see how I may have already affected myself or those whom I have cooked for with my poor choices in techniques or ingredients I am ready  to have a new recipe book to read through. Excited to see all the different potential ingredients and imagine how they will fit into the overall dish. All the while picking the brain of a master chef as he teaches us to improve our skills, and potentially our lives through a plate of food.

JJ

There was a time where I can distinctly remember there only being a small handful of Jimmy Johns restaurants in the area. Today there seem to be about as many of them as there are McDonalds or Taco Bells. How did this company manage to pull this off though? In an ever changing world where variety is king, how did a restaurant succeed serving nothing more than a small set list of sandwiches with simple ingredients. Subway offers you a plethora of toppings and breads, but at the double J's you have two bread options and the toppings you can get can be counted on one hand. They offer three or four different kinds of chips, and soft drinks as your accompaniments. It is literally the most simple setup in the history of restaurants, but people are going bananas over it, and they just continue to pop up on more and more street corners. I just don't get how it all manages to run so well.

Carbonated Water

I know I did a soda post once before, but I would like to address this time the addiction half of the soda craze. I used to drink almost a two liter a day of diet dark soda. Have a soda with every meal, and often find myself going on a run to the gas station to have myself a soda for no reason at all. It was an absolute addiction, and I distinctly remember when I tried to quit, the backlash that my body put up was insane. I would crave the rich sugary flavors like a smoker trying to get their nicotine fix, and if I didn't feed my body the sugar and caffeine, I would find myself with these earth shattering headaches that I couldn't fight. A soda is  carbonated water mixed with a flavored, caffeine laced syrup. It is garbage for the body, and though I know its one hundred percent not possible, I would like to think that one day the world can rid themselves of their dependencies on soda. That's a lot of headaches.

The Quickest Way

So my step mother is taking the plunge and getting gastric bypass. A surgery that in my view is just an easy way out for people who have made lifestyle choices that have caused them to become morbidly obese. Before you say anything, I believe that I have the right to pass this judgment because I have battled being overweight for my entire life.I knew gluttony entirely too early in my years, and shortly after I graduated high school I found myself being two hundred and seventy pounds. With some simple changes to my diet, a little self control and an ipod I found my way down to two hundred pounds. So I am living proof that this "disease" is entirely curable. I digress though, and now that I am in culinary school, the thought of this surgery sickens me even more. Why in the world would you ever want to shrink your stomach to the point that you cannot even enjoy a full serving of food. Where you can be fuller than full after a few saltine crackers. What I am trying to say is that I can not justify limiting the amount and type of food I can enjoy, just for the simple satisfaction of my own self image. That's a disease.

The Big O.

My school randomly hosts speaker series, and they are often fairly bland and boring, or an attempt to sell me rubber spatulas. The most recent one however was likely the most well done presentation I have seen in quite a while. A man gave us a front row seat for his midlife crisis, and showed us how his hobby he enjoyed is slowly turning him into a successful entrepreneur. The difference in the story however, is that this man did not accomplish all of these goals on luck. (Well not all on luck at least) He accomplished his goals through hard work, trial and error and persistence among other things. He led us step by step through every process he went through to get to where he is at that very second, it was intense to go through all of his ups and downs as if we were all there experiencing them with him. On top of all that, his descriptions of his liquor itself were less about how much he loved it, but how the high authorities on the topics of all things booze praised the taste, and how he has potential customers from around the GLOBE, not just the USA, but around the globe asking for his product. That's big business. This stuff will be HUGE one day, and I will get to say I met him when he was only a little operation. Damn, what a good networking tool he will be.

The Restaurant Field

You can find a restaurant anywhere these days. From gas stations to grocery stores, movie theatres to malls. The restaurant industry is growing more and more everyday, and does not show any signs of stopping, and for good reason. People will always need to eat, and making it readily available for the customer at any turn is an awfully good business plan. Once I obtain this degree from Lecole and step out into the "real world", I assume I will find an abundance of jobs waiting for me, and that no matter what, as long as I have that degree, and especially as I get more and more experience that I will never have any troubles walking into a kitchen and accepting a job. I can absolutely NOT understand people that go to our school who have issues finding jobs. A restaurant goes CRAZY for students, because sometimes the pool of workers outside of us is just abysmal and littered with druggies or foreigners. I could have a new job next week if I did my research and put the effort into it, and I dare anyone to tell me I cant.  This industry is forever hiring because it is forever evolving. Variety is the spice of life, and I plan to over season my plate.