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.