The Vegetarian Option: Redefined

To my 2.5 readers out there (who I am so thankful to have), my apologies for my posting moratorium. At some point I started to realize that as an avid cook, I actually cook at home a lot, and well, I don’t go out to eat as often as I would like to truly make this blog what I would like it to be.

So here it is: I’m changing the subject. There will still be posts about my latest cooking and baking discoveries (I just made the most scrumptious coconut cake), the latest of my book reviews (must let you know how Judith Jones’ memoir was. She eats a beaver tail and dubs it unctuous.) Perhaps some foodie-related events (Will also need to post on a Julia Child lecture at the New School I attended.) And, of course, there will be vegetarian options.

But next month, I am about to start something that I hope will change the rest of my life and bring further meaning to this passion I have for food. Somewhat recently I learned that my grandparents actually owned a restaurant in their small town in the Philippines. After finding this out, I started to realize why my entire family has so much knowledge, passion and sometimes obsession for food.

I had always thought that this love for cooking was merely because cooking makes food and, well, food is delicious. Then my mother told me that our family had a history. It changed the way I really looked at food and cooking. Even more recently, my uncle told me that my grandparents would hold contests together on who made the better version of a dish. That sounds like a heavenly date night to me.

Of course I don’t think of this passion as something that’s automatically coded into my DNA. If I grew up in another household, let’s say somewhere in the middle of the country, I may have thought it wise to begin each meal by opening a can of condensed mushroom soup. My childhood gave me a true appreciation of flavor, fresh ingredients, and being thankful to have this food available.

So next month I will begin culinary school. It isn’t exactly what my grandparents would have wanted since I will be going to a mostly vegetarian school. Yes, I still took the vegetarian option.

I will be attending the Chef’s Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. (NGI) I chose this school for a number of reasons. First, as I perused the culinary schools in NYC I realized that I needed to make the decision that it was going to be ok for me to eat and work with meat again. I wouldn’t spend all this money on tuition so I could back out of my butchering classes like so many girls did in high school chemistry the second we had to slice open a frog. As a chef-in-training I needed to relieve this disquiet, and I never truly did. So NGI stepped in.

While the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) seemed my number one choice, for so many of its distinguished reasons, it wasn’t the right school for me in the end. Frankly, their thirty thousand dollar tuition is absurd. The French Culinary Institute is a choke-worthy forty thousand dollars. The more I did research, the more it became clear to me that culinary school is just another business. Truly, if I wanted to be a chef, I should just get a job as a line cook somewhere and start from scratch. Most notable chefs start that way anyway. Though, I do not have goals in becoming a restaurant chef (at least for now), nor do I want to shatter my already miniscule piggy bank into pieces. (I’ll talk about my culinary goals in another posting.)

Another reason I chose NGI is the length of their externship – it’s about half as long as every other school. I know that could piss off a good number of chefs, but I don’t care. I have a full time job that I have no plans to quit, so I am taking two weeks off at the end of my program to complete my externship. And speaking of my full time job, NGI’s part-time program is really the best for people who have jobs. It’s only twice a week. The Art Institute (AI) has a “part-time” program of five days a week! Let’s call a spade a spade here, AI. You, sir, are hardly “part-time.”

Another school I toured was the Culinary Academy. It was the cheapest out of all the schools – about fifteen thousand. It’s the scholastic equivalent to Devry. Not that there’s anything wrong with Devry. (I wouldn’t want you to think I’m some sort of elitist.) But when I began to ask really hard questions from my admissions representative like can I have their course list, and perhaps a conversation with a chef instructor (since he certainly knew nothing about the actual program) he was suddenly nowhere to be found. By god, I went to a state college and I certainly can’t go through any bullshit bureaucratic nonsense ever again. I might as well spring another five grand to be at NGI.

So here I am. I hope you’ll stick around to read about my next adventure. I promise that I’ll be better about my postings. I hope to be more regular just to answer the question, “So how’s culinary school going?” I can also promise that this culinary story will be a different one as it is a vegetarian culinary school – there’s gotta be something more interesting there. If not, it might be worth waiting for me to discuss my poultry class elective. If you’re looking for drama, I can guarantee it for that class. So when you think you want to watch hell’s kitchen, the next food network star or the next top chef, skip it and come here. Mine won’t be as mean. Maybe.