Lecture (Keepin' It Real)

Sorry, no amateur food porn today -- class today was all lecture, given by a nice woman I'll call Darla. The subject was the business of food, and the jobs (and salaries) we could expect to encounter when we leave the ever-loving arms of academia. Darla started off by talking about herself, which concerned me for a moment -- is this going to be some sort of weird self-help guru thing?



No, Darla was actually really interesting and well-spoken. Darla was in publishing until she got bored to tears, went to a similar culinary school, and did some hard time on the line in a few kitchens before finding herself burning out. Because she was a bit older than the other line cooks, she had the maturity to, well, show up and be on time and be dependable. When she informed her boss/chef she was at the end of her tether, she found herself managing the kitchen, which lead to managing all sorts of interesting posts. When she gave a tour of a high-visibility burger shack she was managing to a class from our school, some one had the good sense to give her a more regular podium.

Darla went around the room and asked for people's short- and long-term goals. I told her that mine were to work in a pizza-oriented kitchen; long-term, to bring a product to market. She immediately name-checked a pizza joint I was thinking of approaching for an externship soon, which was eerie. Darla spoke of salaries in the food biz, particularly how poorly and potentially unfairly linecooks tend to be compensated. She reviewed the pitfalls of running a restaurant, and offered a basic sketch of the deceptively simple logic of relatively few revenue streams (the food) and the many expenses (food, labor, rent, insurance, licenses, publicity, linens, licenses, disposables, etc etc); not to mention how expenses are especially screwy in today's economy.

Still fuzzy on what I want to do for the rest of my life, but feel like I just got another good link added to my chain mail.

ADDENDA:
I was surprised this morning to find the scale reading 222, after it reading 224 for several months after an easy drop from 235. I know it's going to annoy some people, but I can't help but think it's simply from eating too little and sleeping too much this past weekend, and it'll be back in a flash once I get back into the normal groove of things.

I went to yoga for a 6:45 class. 100 people shoved mat-to-mat in a small room, way too hot. If I was in a cubicle all day, why would I shove myself onto a packed subway to make it to a sardine-can yoga class? Total insanity, all those people must be spending extra money on therapists. After the first 20 minutes, I walked out and got a refund. I guess I'm really lucky to have a non-9 to 5 grind right now, definitely going to stick to afternoon classes and other less trafficked yogathons.

The organic carrots in my salad looked young, and they have a very tingly, vaguely unpleasant flavor to them.

After stopping by Laboratorio de Gelato on Orchard St., I picked up ingredients to make fresh mint ice cream this evening. Just taking my vanilla ice cream recipe, quartering the vanilla, and instead of just heating half & half to a simmer, I plan to place a few cups of mint leaves in the half & half and let them steep for 30 minutes off the heat. Hopefully it'll be good, we'll know tomorrow. My first stab at a flavored ice cream that's not chocolate or involving an extract.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cornflakes with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, handful of peanuts, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, veg, shrimp and pork dumplings, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

LUNCH #2: 3pm, large green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Fresh from the green market.

PM SNACK: 6pm, 8oz of 3 flavors of gelato, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way to yoga, so hot and having a sugar craving -- guess I didn't eat enough. Makes me want to make my own.

DINNER: 7:30pm, seitan, quinoa, seaweed stuff and tahini dressing, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Vegan food at the yoga studio with the HVS.