Project Connections at CCC

Today I went on a college visit to Camden County College and I made a project connection when lunch time rolled around. As we were walking through the serving area, I was paying close attention to the presentation of the food; it was a lot better looking than Lindenwold Highs lunch but nothing that deserved a rant and rave. I began to survey the sitting area and I thought about how that area plays a big part in a meal. I found it interesting that our school is newer than CCC and yet our cafeteria doesn't look half as good as their's; we have folding tables that are uncomfortably stiff and they have nice individual tables that look more modern and inviting. The food was a lot better than the LHS daily specail, which there is nothing specail about. Over all, I enjoyed the campus and I was happy that the food obviously wasn't top notch, but something a little more enjoyable.

I'm Excited to blog! (My first visit to my sponsor)

Yesterday while I was on the train on my way to meet my sponsor, I made some surreal connections. There was a body worlds picture on the train (which made me think of our senior project class and our controversial trip to body worlds) and a poster that read: the only cure to hunger is FOOD (my project is on food preparation). This blew my mind and made me feel confident, as if it were luck coming into play to make my day. After my arrival to Haddonfeild, found the little tuna with no issues (which was one of my main worries; getting lost in a foreign town being the only teen on earth who doesn't own a cell phone!) and I sat and waited to meet my sponsor, Darren (I hope it's not spelled Darron). His greeting was very friendly and he gave me the grand tour of the restaurant. I felt very comfortable and the people were extremely welcoming. He explained that cooking in a restaurant calls for an efficient team (I wasn't aware there was so much team work involved) and it demands a lot from you. He taught me that a good chef is open to tasting all foods, that way you learn what flavors go together and you can create new and exciting meals. Darren made me fried calamari (aka squid which I've had before), shrimp in a orange sauce and a spicy Jamaican sauce that I dipped the calamari in. The food was great and some of the flavors were new to me and I enjoyed the experience. He taught me what caramelizing means and how to achieve the effect. He also taught me the definition of saute, gave me an example and told me he's going to start quizzing me on things he teaches me.

I began to think that cooking is very much like chemistry; there are so many things you have to do to manipulate food to achieve the final product and this involves a lot of chemical and physical reactions. Also, he informed me that I have to start watching the food network channel to learn more and sooner or later he will begin to ask me to make him meals. After that I will become a part of the team and help prepare food for customers. I was really impressed and although I know it will be hard, I'm eager to learn. As I sat on the train to Lindenwold I looked back at the food poster on the wall. There was a picture on it that I didn't notice earlier; a variety of different foods were in the shape of a microscope! I guess I'm not the only one who thinks food is a science.

Image connections

As I was browsing the web, I found several interesting photographs that support my thesis and are quite eye catching. I found these pictures on an image sharing website so I'm not sure which chefs created this food art but I would like to know more about them. I believe that food is an art and these meals help back up my opinion. Food is so manipulable and can be made to look like just about anything. It interests me how chefs are able to turn a meal into a work of art; they completely change the meaning of food. These dishes not only appeal to ones taste buds but their eyes as well; how creative.

The "field trip"

This week has been tough one and due to the massive amounts of snow making traveling extremely difficult, I was not able to meet with my sponsor on wend. and I got snowed in at my boyfriends house. I knew I had to turn up the creativity and come up with an activity to learn from that related to my project, so I decided to make breakfast with my boyfriend Matt. I made a list of all the traditional breakfast foods (eggs, toast, sausage, home fries, etc.) and I had a unique idea so I ran with it. We made fried egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches. We fried an egg into the shape of a square, put cheese on it, two slices of bread (like a sandwich) and we fried it in a pan as if it were grilled cheese. I seasoned mine and added ham and they came out great. After we were finished I felt accomplished, even though that may sound a little strange but I had fun making them and I really enjoyed the finish product. Next time you re stuck in the house with nothing to do, try making you own meal it's fun and even if it turns out bad, hopefully someone will eat it!

Project connection

I was at church with a friend the other day and the pastor started to tell the story of Adam and eve; as he went on he mentioned that Adam and eve lived in 3500 - 4000BC which made me think of the researching I did on random facts about food (in hopes to come up with a research paper topic), I learned that apples came into the world in 8000BC. I made the connection to apples because as the story goes, Adam and eve were forbidden to eat the apples of a certain tree but were allowed to touch anything else they desired. I found it interesting that apples were growing that long before the first humans were assumed to have lived. When you think about it, you can make a connection to food in almost any daily situation.