2003

Well, you’ll all be happy to know that I’ve secured a job with the Special Events department of the Greystone restaurant. Woo hoo! I’m an on-call prep cook basically, so when there are special events, which is just about all the time, they’ll call and see if I can come in and work, and then I go work! Ding! The only problem is that you never know when you’re going to be working, and the hours vary a lot. But, it’s a start anyways. And I heard from a little bird that there may be open opportunities to work as a Banquet server at Roux! Thanks to some impromptu networking I did after class the other day, I got the scoop on this little dealie-o. Will know for sure tomorrow, but I would rather work there because it’s more of a regular job, I’ll get more experience in the real restaurant setting, it pays about 3 dollars an hour more, there are more hours and it’s about a 1.5 minute walk from my house! Ding! We’ll see if they actually are hiring…

This week has been quite exhausting I must say! Three finals, a four page paper and a quiz in five days: yowzahs! It’s a great pace, but I don’t think I’ve quite adjusted to this whole getting-up-at-five-in-the-morning thing yet.

Jen and I hiked at Robert Louis Stevenson state park yesterday. We were supposed to do the ten miles up Mt. St. Helena, but we took the wrong path (and got lost for an hour on the way there…), so ended up at Table Rock trail instead. It was actually perfect! We met some very interesting people, who we’re hoping to run into again, and still got in a four mile hike. So it was all good.

The harvest has officially started! Rutherford, the town about 10 miles away, smells like wine! This picture of grapes I took last week by the library. They’re sooo delicious! I’m planning on making a new sourdough starter with these grapes tomorrow.

WARNING: VENT TO SKIP PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO NEXT PARAGRAPH.
I just wrote a whole wonderful huge long entry with pictures and everything and the FREAKING library computer logged me out and now, it’s gone. all gone. I absolutely cannot stand this internet situation a day longer. tomorrow I am going to search until i find a solution. I will not stop at anything. ARG. SOO ANNOYING!

So, anyways, a FAMOUS chef–Daniel Boulud— came to school today! This was my first encounter with a really FAMOUS chef and was quite exciting. We had a book discussion in the Eco Lounge and I had the opportunity to speak with him personally for a few minutes afterward while he was signing my book. Pretty exciting stuff! I’m not convinced that he’s got any backbone supporting his notoriety, but after I finish reading his book this weekend I’ll let you know what I think. It really wouldn’t be a complete review unless I ate at his restaurants, so maybe I’ll have to take a trip to NYC and then give you a full review. Anyone want to come with?

I’ve decided once and for all that it is Imperative for me to learn French and improve my Spanish speaking skills immediately. Especially since I’m going to be heading to Europe (to study chocolate) as soon as it makes financial sense (within the next 3 years or so). I think I’ll start in Belgium then head to France, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain. After that I’ll be off to South America–maybe hit up Costa Rica and hang out with Uncle Brian for a while.

OH MY GOSH! You will not believe what we did in Baking Science today!! Go ahead, guess! We started our very own sourdough starters!! HOW EXCITING THIS IS!!! Did you know that you can start your very own sourdough starter using only flour, water, and some organic produce! HOT! Think of the endless variations!! Besides there being hundreds of fruits and vegetables out there just thriving with yeast cells, you can do any combination of these fruits with any combination of flours (and there are thousands of flours!!!). And, since starters are living things–you have to feed them and take very good care of them every day–it’s also a cheap and rewarding pet! Especially for those of us living in places that don’t allow pets or those of us who don’t want to be tied down with real-life responsabilities (you can dry your sourdough before you go out of town and then reactivate it upon your return!). Ding! I’m going to start (at leat) one at home too, so I’ll let you know how it goes. Well, I’m about to get kicked off again, so I’ll say adieu for now. Hope y’all have a great weekend!