I'm a graduate!

I didn't go to college traditionally. In fact, I railed against college, thought I was way better than school and moved to New York for the first time when I was 19 years old. It took me about a year after to realize that maybe I shouldn't be so stubborn and I should try it out. I swear, it had nooooothing to do with the fact that I worked at a prestigious talent agency at the time that wanted to promote me but only if I had a 4 year degree... I decided to move back to Georgia and try school out mainly to prove myself right, that school was for suckers and I needed no part of it. Well, it took me 5 years but I eventually got my Associates degree and decided that I was right and felt no need to go back to school traditionally again.

Deciding to go to culinary school a year ago was a huge thing for me. I had an amazing job, an apartment perfect for me and a life in New York City that I spent 7 years building. To leave all of that behind in pursuit of a dream seemed a) insane and b) impossible. With the undying support of my friends and family, I took off on a journey that has forever totally changed my life. I am without words when I think of the adventure.

I finished my program in October last year complete with a graduation at ALMA amongst my schoolmates, parents and sister. It was a joyous, memorable evening and I will never forget it:

To add to this remarkable journey, it turns out that my alma mater, ICC, decided to hold its first ever formal New York City graduation for our program at Carnegie Hall! After wrapping things up in Italy back in October, I definitely didn't think we'd have something else like this to look forward to. When I got the initial email announcing graduation, I kept thinking there's just no way I can afford yet another trip back to NYC right now after having gone back twice already in less than 6 months of living in Denver. For goodness sake, I can't seem to move on with my life in Denver when I keep returning to where my heart is in NYC! After about two seconds of thinking this nonsense that I couldn't go back, I snapped out of it and booked a ticket immediately. 

What a special weekend. It was a very fast trip, fast enough where I didn't even make plans with anyone but Allison, but I relished in every moment. Allison and I spent all of Saturday together talking, laughing, sharing...spending much needed quality time together and it was awesome. For those who don't know, Allison is kicking ass in wine school right now studying to take her first two exams for the prestigious Court of Master Sommeliers. I got to hear all about it and she even did a personal tasting with me and sure did teach me a thing or two. She's gonna be a wine badass, y'all. 

Come Sunday, I met Trisha, Mo and Dalila for coffee before we had to be at Carnegie Hall and it was so very good to see them. Although I was missing Gavin and John, it was just awesome seeing those three. What's funny is that all four of us were in the exact same spot in feeling incredibly nostalgic for Italy recently. We reminisced and talked about our journeys and it blanketed me in warm, sweet feelings. It's hard to put into words. 

When it was time to head into the waiting area at Carnegie Hall, we proudly donned our chef whites and got ready for the ceremony:

I was honored to have Allison, Stacy, Colleen and Shameer be there to share in my special day. Four people who mean the world to me. Four people who have a part of my heart and who bring an uncontrollable smile to my face when I think of them. Especially Allison. My culinary journey started as a thought, then a dream, then a possibility, then a reality. All with Allison by my side, cheering me on, picking me up when I fell, encouraging me when I burned my practical exam dishes in school...she has been my rock, my confidant, my supporter, my friend and my biggest cheerleader. I was so very happy to close this journey out with her where she'd been all along, by my side.

The ceremony was lovely. It was inspiring and moving, just like my entire culinary journey had been. How lucky am I to have had the ever so talented Colleen Putman capture my moment on stage:

Yep, she kicks ass. After the ceremony, she got this shot of me and the famed Cesare Casella, dean of my program and personal friend of mine:

SO awesome.

Sisters in the city, equally as awesome:

We all went for some snacks and drinks afterward and then Colleen decided she wanted to snap some photos in the park of us and I cannot tell you how grateful I am to her for putting the finishing touches on the day and my entire culinary adventure:

 JOY:

I adore you, Shameezle:

Colleen, you're just so damn talented. You capture the moments that matter and I get to have these memories forever. Thank you for that.

So, that was my weekend. Doesn't it look awesome? It was. It really was.

Under The Sea

If any of you out there has ever had a bad oyster, you can join my shellfish hating club. Rather, the shellfish hating club I used to belong to up until two years ago. I had my first raw oyster when I was 19 years old down in good ol' Jacksonville, FL. I'd been excited to try them and man, was I disappointed. It was rotten and made me very sick for nearly a week. I swore I'd never eat another one the rest of my life so it was kind of a monumental evening when some friends and I went to Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar to reintroduce me to the suckers. I ended up really liking them and have since enjoyed a few more oyster extravaganzas.

In addition to the oyster thing, I also was never big on raw fish. Yes, I'd enjoy going for sushi and occasionally trying something raw but it just didn't appeal to me. Once again, I have to reference my trip to Sicily and credit that with changing my mind totally about raw fish, too. We ate almost nothing but raw fish everywhere in Sicily with the exception of one or two meals that involved different salumi. That is the cuisine on the island and some of the fish they have access to is rare and amazing. Here is but the smallest example of a few dishes we had (and this is only on day one of our trip!):

I'm pleased to say that I was really excited for seafood antipasti day at school now that I'm a new woman when it comes to things of the sea. Mainly, I was pretty psyched to work with octopus for the very first time.

We had the last round of our ServSafe lectures on Friday but we had to interrupt it to prep the octopus. It needed to poach at a low simmer for about two hours so we had to take a break and get it prepared, eeek:

That is one slimy dude. The octopus, not my partner, Mo. As we were prepping this thing, I couldn't help but think about how incredible an octopus is. I mean, it's the single weirdest creature yet one of the most fascinating. God has created some spectacular things on this earth and I must say the octopus is one of them. 

After ServSafe was finished, we got down to business with making tartara di tonna (tuna tartare), carpaccio of tuna, crudo and oysters. I wish I'd snapped a photo of the tuna and how gorgeous it was. I feel most fortunate to be working with the ingredients that we have access to. For those who don't know, tartare or ceviche are dishes where you're using raw fish but it's ultimately cooked by the acid in whatever citrus fruit or vinegar you use. I've known that's the process since I first tried ceviche but I had no idea just how fast the acid really does cook the fish. This is my tartare just before plating and you can see how the tuna has already turned a bit grey:

That's because it started cooking immediately when I added my vinaigrette! I was shocked at how fast it happened. This can serve as proof for you raw fish phobes that tartars and ceviches are not truly raw. Regardless, it was delicious and I ate it in a blink. 

We also made our own tuna carpaccio and crudo plates using flounder as the fish for the crudo. We had to make up our own flavor combinations and we were under a certain time limit so that was a bit stressful. For the tuna, I did a "salad" of black olives, pickled onion, parsley and lemon zest which I chopped together finely and plated in the middle of the tuna so you could take a little bit with each bite. Um, I forgot to salt the tuna which is the first thing you do with any meat, grrr! I had to go back three times when presenting to Chef because I couldn't get the flavors right. 

My crudo plate, however, was much better. I was running very short on time so my mind blanked on what to do. I knew I wanted to make a lemon vinaigrette but I didn't get farther than that. So, I whipped that up with finely chopped fresh parsley and fennel prawns and I ended up using that as the vinaigrette for everything. The other requirement for the crudo was that we each shuck two oysters and that really tripped me up. I started to get stressed out at that point because time was out so my plate ended up being a whole lot of white - white flounder, white plate, white fennel, "white" oyster - but the green in my vinaigrette popped nicely and Chef Guido's feedback? "Divine". I was definitely pleased with that review.

Before class ended, we all took our octopi and added them to one ceramic terrine to be refrigerated over the weekend. I could not believe how small the octopi cook down. There are five in this terrine:

It was definitely an experience to do seafood antipasti day but very cool. I've learned so much already in my first two weeks of school and it's honestly awesome. Oh, and we had our first Italian test after kitchen and I think I actually did well. YAY! That was a nice way to round out the week and head into my birthday weekend. :)