First things first, I just wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite professors from my time at UNI. Thanks to social media, we are still connected and he is the one who encouraged me to start a blog! And guess what! He also has a blog that you can check out. My favorite post so far is about 30 things he has learned in his first 30 years, which you can check out
here!
Second of all..
Today is a snow day.
[This is me creeping on my neighbor at 7:30 in the morning. Super glad I'm not him...although I will be when I go to work in a few hours.]
Now I know this is what you're all thinking:
But in reality, snow days have always been god-given catch up days for me.
...With the exception of the Blizzard of '09. That was a day full of venturing to the dining center through waist-high drifts, making our dorm room a winter wonderland, Friend-Christmas, and overall a day full of shenanigans.
THAT was a good day.
But today, I received a class cancellation text at 5:32am and immediately started making lists of things I need to get done, rendering me unable to fall back asleep. Hopefully I will find time to snow-shoe my way to the grocery store and back because, naturally, I am out of the basic necessities. Also, a deep clean of my apartment is in order because with the constant coming and going, class uniforms/work uniforms/bags/backpacks/shoes/dishes etc. have piled up and my apartment is starting to resemble gollum's cave and soon enough I'll be like:
So trust me, in order to keep the friends I still have after posting that picture, cleaning needs to be a priority.
Enough of my first world problems.. you probably want to hear how classes are going!
Scene: Enter Kirkwood Hospitality Arts Building
For those who don't know, the Hospitality program (Culinary Arts/Baking & Pastry Arts/Hotel Management/Restaurant Management) is housed in a building separate from the main campus. Kirkwood has its own hotel, which is a member of
Summit Hotels and Resorts . This is a fancy way of saying there is a number of select hotels world wide that are super luxurious and super expensive and they are members of groups like this (Trump Towers are also a part of this group!)
The Hotel is the key factor that makes this program SO great. The large building houses the Hospitality program, the Hotel, and the Conference Center. This provides a learning laboratory where students get hands-on, real-life experience throughout their education. They are never more than a few steps away from a living, breathing example of their profession and resources that are meant to help them.
Here is where I geek out a little bit:
-For those from back home: Through a little research, I found that
Design Engineers who engineered this building also did the new
Davenport Police Facility in Downtown Davenport.
-For ISU fans: They also designed one of your
state-of-the-art dining centers!
-For all of my Interior Design friends and anyone interested in really cool spaces, This is what
The Hotel at Kirkwood looks like! Click the top right tab (PHOTO TOUR).
-The Class Act Hotel is the hotel restaurant where Culinary/Bakery students will eventually do their clinicals. What great experience, right?! This restaurant is also a drool-worthy space to look at so here you go! Take the photo tour of
The Class Act Restaurant ! Click the top right tab (PHOTO TOUR).
As a UNI student, I was pampered with amazing facilities campus-wide. I can say the same in this building!
This is the lounge where students hang out between classes. The entire building has an art initiative going on which you can see some of it displayed on the walls in here! Behind each piece of wall art are the Men's and Womens's locker rooms. The two double-door entrances in between is a computer lab. Opposite this wall is a small kitchen and vending machine enclosure which isn't pictured.
This is the large exhibit kitchen / auditorium. I've only been in this room for the business side of school (Program Conference/Registration/Orientation.)
This is one of the state-of-the-art culinary labs. If I remember right, there are two or three of these and then a separate Bakery lab where I hang out! They look similar, my lab just has three large butcher-block tables where we work and different equipment such as $35,000 ovens....but we'll save that for later.
The rest of the Hospitality center is made of up of offices and pretty standard class rooms, which you don't really need or want to see. ;)
Scene: Enter First Day of Classes
All uniformed up, it's time to finally begin!
The program's belief is that in these specific fields, students learn better on a block schedule. This means I attend the same classes everyday for a certain period of time instead of alternating days throughout a 18 week semester, like I did at UNI.
At first, I was taking only two classes, but as of yesterday I am taking three.
The classes I'm currently taking are as follows:
Bakery Essentials//M-F (50 Minutes). This class runs from January 22nd - February 15th. It is basically just an introduction to the workplace. We are in the Bakery Lab and the first week of class was a grand tour of the facility and where equipment and uniforms are located. The white jackets in the photo are stored in the basement because they are LAUNDERED (chickayeah!) through the hotel laundry.
Please, everyone, take a moment and celebrate with me how nice it is to not have to clean those suckers myself every day.
Okay, moving on.
This week, we started knifing skills! This includes our brand-spankin' new knives we bought (exhibit A. on the left in photo) 50 pounds of potatoes, and a lot of newbie knife users! This is really fun to practice but also really hard for perfectionists. We have a few cutting techniques we have practiced so far including the two you see in the picture which are:
A. Brunoise; 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch (those tiny cubes)
B. Julienne; 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch x 2 inches (those longer straws aka McDonald's French Fries)
Cool, huh? Because I love you all so much, I'm going to include a video our professor provided for us. A quick little blurb by a knowledgeable dude on how to use a knife and use it well!
Once I got past his accent, I learned a LOT in this short little video and think you could, too!
Hospitality Math// M-Th (90 Minutes). The second class I'm taking, which I just added yesterday, is Hospitality Math. This class runs from January 22nd - March 15th. Now, you're probably thinking, "But didn't you cover any math requirements you needed at UNI?"
Yes, yes I did. But as my advisor so kindly pointed out, this course is geared solely around math used in hospitality. So, yeah, it may be super-duper-easy-peasey math but I think I should probably master how many quarts are in a gallon/tablespoons in three cups/etc. Could I Google it? Of course..but how much smarter will I sound to you when I can just rattle it off? ;) In the business spectrum of things this class should also help when it comes to pricing products, cost control, payrolls, etc. Important? Definitely.
Safety and Sanitation// M-Th (50 Minutes). This class runs from January 22nd - March 15th. This class is exactly what it sounds like; learning the ins and outs of safety and sanitation in food handling. The thing is, I think this is a class anyone, anywhere should be taking! Yeah, I'm never hungry after class..FOR A GOOD REASON.
Ex. Just because you can see someone making your food, doesn't mean you saw them washing their hands beforehand. Here's the kicker: It goes both ways! You decided not to wash your hands after you went to the bathroom, you come back and touch your plate/silverware/glass? Those dishes come back to the kitchen and whoever had to clean up after you could get sick from YOU.
A little more detail you, say? Hepatitis A: transferred via fecal-oral route. Yep, that means the poop on your hands was transferred to your dishware which some innocent bus-person cleaned up and then they touched their mouth. Big mistake on their part, but it happens!
Also, did you know the onset times for food-borne illness symptoms is anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 weeks?! This means the sushi you ate back in December could just be showing signs now and poor you thinks it was the burrito you had last night! :)
These are only a few of the very interesting things I've learned so far. If you want to know more, feel free to ask me questions! At the end of the course, I not only have a final exam, but also a ServeSafe Exam administered by the National Restaurant Assocation that certifies me for 5 years. Both tests require passing grades in order to pass the class.
This is me trying to stay awake while studying at 1:00AM for our quiz that was suppose to be today. Thankfully, Snow Day comes to the rescue so I can continue memorizing facts about Clostridium botulinum, Bacillius cereus, campylobacter jejuni, and other fun topics!
This isn't a good class for the paranoid, but it's sure good at scaring. Take a little extra time today to really think about how well you wash up and all of the things you touch throughout the day. Stay healthy, everyone!
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So, to put it simply, two of my classes are half a semester long- they end right before spring break. The class that ends mid-February will be replaced by a 4 hour lab class called Bakery Basics which will end right before spring break also. The real fun begins after spring break!
My courses for Mid-march through mid-May include International Breads, Science of Baking, International Pastries, and Basic Cake Decorating! These course are bound to provide some great photos for you to feast your eyes on!
Apologies for the novel; blog posts from now on are bound to be much shorter!
I would tell you what to stay tuned for but if we're being honest, I'm going to get off track anyway so we'll just keep it a surprise!
Have a great hump-day and an even better Thursday-Friday-Weekend!
-BB
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