Picnicpalooza

What a wonderful day for a picnic on Saturday! We got to school early, packed up the food and loaded the truck, and drove to Cook Park. Chef Ron, being the 'Mad Caterer', (and I say this with the utmost affection and respect), had linen for the picnic tables and everything. This is the first time I've been to such a fancy picnic. I throughly enjoyed it. I wasn't able to help lift too much, but I helped to take turns grilling the corn, hot dogs and chicken. We actually ran out of food. Imagine that! The corn eating contest was hilarious. I also found out that I will eventually need to make a food portfolio. Yup, a food portfolio. So I'll have to get a digital camera eventually. (Gosh, darn!)
Yesterday, being 4th July, we did not have class. I must say that I really missed it. But today it was back to normal. Chef Lori lectured on culinary math. Seeing as how I was a math major... But it's nice to know how to convert measurements. And then Chef Ron talked about different things to do to food before the cooking process even begins. The so called mise en place. (Ah, oui, it is something different in French class!) We also had our sanitation test and got our equipment kits today. I wasn't sure about a couple of the questions, but unless they demanded perfect scores to get the card, I'm sure I'll get my food handler's license. After class I went to the library to do homework and read about seafood and vegetables. I also noticed that there was an 'Advanced Professional Cooking' book, by the same person who wrote our text book.
Yesterday I also talked to an old professor about the restaurants run by Ming Tsai and Todd English. (Different restaurants.) I did not know that Todd English had one in Boston. The professor's research project is to check out those places. I regret to say that I cannot give him a research grant, however.... :-)