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Well, the past week has been very packed full of lots of fun things and I've tried sitting down to write about it all, but it has either been too late at night or I did not have time to sufficiently cover everything. Hopefully I can get it all in now.
The trip to the resort went great. Annie and I drove down Friday evening and spent the weekend there. They put us up in a nice cabin suite complete with bathroom with shower, a queen bunk bed, tv w/cable, mini fridge, and heat/ac. After a good Friday night's rest and a great breakfast, I met with the chef and went over everything important. I got chef pants and chef coats and toured the kitchen and got an idea of how everything will work. After that Annie and I went out an enjoyed the amazing weather. The morning and early afternoon were very warm. We played tennis, billiards, ping pong, horseshoes and I showed Annie the resort. We had a good lunch, nap, and dinner and then watched UK lose their basketball game. After another good night's rest we had breakfast, packed up and headed back to Provo. Less than 50 miles from the resort we found that it had snowed that night. The further north we got, the more snow there was. Turns out, the storm was pretty significant. Provo got between 4 and 6 inches, areas in the southern parts of Utah and Salt Lake valley got as much as 8. The ski resorts got plenty as well. Most resorts will stay open through the next few weeks, with one saying they will be open until Memorial Day. All in all, the trip was great. Our only cost was gas and 2 fast food meals (one on the way down, one on the way back up). It was nice to enjoy the serenity of the resort and have no obligations.
The other big thing I did this past week was attend a Food and Candy Expo sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists. There were 130 companies with booths set up, most of which had samples and other swag. The companies ranged from flavor companies to spice companies to freeze dried food companies, food fortification companies, food color companies, food technology companies and more. I brought home product samples of flavored drink mixes, chocolates (even some probiotic chocolate), cookies, candies colored by different companies, caramel corn lots of pens and more. At the event, I sampled salt reduced/alternative foods, freeze dried pineapple and all sorts of different products. It was really neat to see just how HUGE the food science industry is. It's one of the few industries completely unaffected by the recession and an industry where you are guaranteed a job when you graduate. I talked with a guy about all my culinary background and he said that the industry definitely needs more people who know food and not just science. Maybe one day I'll become a corporate chef or something. We'll see.
That brings me to the cool thing I learned at the resort. This summer I'm going to be working towards certification with the American Culinary Federation. Basically what that means is that I will learn the things necessary to get a certain certification. It's essentially a culinary education not at a school. Sort of like an apprenticeship studying under a chef. The certifications start at certified culinarian, then go to sous chef, then executive chef, then the coveted master chef. I would like to become an ACF certified Sous Chef first, but that will take some time. One day though, I for sure want to be certified as a Master Chef...but that's years and years away.
Check out these cool cookies I had at the food and candy expo. They are fruit flavored and have a very light texture. They're pretty awesome: Vosswinkel Cookies
Oh, and to Angela back home: As I was on my way home today I was going by the duck pond and there was a duck diving under just like your facebook profile picture. He/She/It was kicking it's legs to get further down. Thought it was hilarious!
The trip to the resort went great. Annie and I drove down Friday evening and spent the weekend there. They put us up in a nice cabin suite complete with bathroom with shower, a queen bunk bed, tv w/cable, mini fridge, and heat/ac. After a good Friday night's rest and a great breakfast, I met with the chef and went over everything important. I got chef pants and chef coats and toured the kitchen and got an idea of how everything will work. After that Annie and I went out an enjoyed the amazing weather. The morning and early afternoon were very warm. We played tennis, billiards, ping pong, horseshoes and I showed Annie the resort. We had a good lunch, nap, and dinner and then watched UK lose their basketball game. After another good night's rest we had breakfast, packed up and headed back to Provo. Less than 50 miles from the resort we found that it had snowed that night. The further north we got, the more snow there was. Turns out, the storm was pretty significant. Provo got between 4 and 6 inches, areas in the southern parts of Utah and Salt Lake valley got as much as 8. The ski resorts got plenty as well. Most resorts will stay open through the next few weeks, with one saying they will be open until Memorial Day. All in all, the trip was great. Our only cost was gas and 2 fast food meals (one on the way down, one on the way back up). It was nice to enjoy the serenity of the resort and have no obligations.
The other big thing I did this past week was attend a Food and Candy Expo sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists. There were 130 companies with booths set up, most of which had samples and other swag. The companies ranged from flavor companies to spice companies to freeze dried food companies, food fortification companies, food color companies, food technology companies and more. I brought home product samples of flavored drink mixes, chocolates (even some probiotic chocolate), cookies, candies colored by different companies, caramel corn lots of pens and more. At the event, I sampled salt reduced/alternative foods, freeze dried pineapple and all sorts of different products. It was really neat to see just how HUGE the food science industry is. It's one of the few industries completely unaffected by the recession and an industry where you are guaranteed a job when you graduate. I talked with a guy about all my culinary background and he said that the industry definitely needs more people who know food and not just science. Maybe one day I'll become a corporate chef or something. We'll see.
That brings me to the cool thing I learned at the resort. This summer I'm going to be working towards certification with the American Culinary Federation. Basically what that means is that I will learn the things necessary to get a certain certification. It's essentially a culinary education not at a school. Sort of like an apprenticeship studying under a chef. The certifications start at certified culinarian, then go to sous chef, then executive chef, then the coveted master chef. I would like to become an ACF certified Sous Chef first, but that will take some time. One day though, I for sure want to be certified as a Master Chef...but that's years and years away.
Check out these cool cookies I had at the food and candy expo. They are fruit flavored and have a very light texture. They're pretty awesome: Vosswinkel Cookies
Oh, and to Angela back home: As I was on my way home today I was going by the duck pond and there was a duck diving under just like your facebook profile picture. He/She/It was kicking it's legs to get further down. Thought it was hilarious!
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