Culinary School

I promised you guys a great post on my experience in culinary school so far, so I’m living up to that promise! I go to culinary school at a community college in my town called Joliet Junior College. Not to brag, but if you google their program, so many articles will pop up on how amazing it is; it’s much cheaper than any other school in Chicago, and it’s seven minutes from my house! What more could I ask for?! Culinary school is for someone who finds fun and love in cooking. If you think, “oh I like to cook, I should do this” but aren’t excited for it, it’s definitely not for you. You need to have a back bone, have soul, and have the absolute love to be in the kitchen. I can honestly say I’ve never been more excited for life than I am right now in this program.

As I started, I was clearly nervous. I’ve already done four years of college as a history major at a university, but now I’m starting over as a FRESHMAN! It’s pretty nerve-wrecking. I still look like a real freshman though, so I get confused as an 18 year old everyday lol. But, the fact that I’ve been to the school before, done my fair share of college, I know how and when to make my schedule with a work schedule, & so far it’s working well. I go to school Monday-Friday, basically all day.

Mondays are meat days! Typically, we like to call Mondays meatless, but my Monday class is filled with fabricating meat! So far, I’ve learned all about poultry, and how to take a part a chicken in two different ways. At first, I figured, who needs to know how to take apart a chicken?! But after you start, you get eight pieces out of one little chicken, that now all I want is to make chicken!

Tuesday classes are my two classroom classes: cost & portion management and menu planning! Cost & portion management, in reality, is culinary math. I’m learning, or should I say relearning, measurements, multiplication & division. As much as I like to think my iPhone will always save me, sometimes in a kitchen, it won’t be there! So relearning the struggle of remembering measurements and how to long divide, is a big help for life. Plus, no one remembers how many teaspoons are in a cup, and you just sound much cooler when you do. Menu planning class is just how it sounds, menu planning! We got to make a “property profile” for the whole semester. My property will be a wine themed bed & breakfast in Sonoma! My second assignment was to make a breakfast menu, which I will attach for your opinions. Both of my Tuesday classes are pretty short and the teachers help teach the material the best way possible.

Wednesdays & Thursdays are long days! I have the same, one class, each day: Intro To Food Preparation. These are my days to learn everything! I learn knife skills, basic kitchen skills, & everything you basically need to know in the kitchen. So far, I’ve learned how to dice onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, and shallots! Even though I thought I knew how to cut onions, I’ve been doing it wrong all along! We also learn cool, fun facts about the culinary world. Fun fact of the day: the chef’s hat has 101 pleats in it representing the 101 ways to cook an egg! Once I learn all 101 ways, I’ll definitely tell you all.

Friday classes are perfect for a Friday. It’s pie day! I’ll be learning how to make pies and tarts. Easy day for my last day of the school week. So far, we’ve learned two different kinds of dough, apple pie, and key lime pie! The school has enough kitchenaid mixers for each of us to use, and omg I’ve never wanted one more than I do after using it! I always mix by hand and have always wanted one of the KitchenAid mixers, but now it’s a need!

The Teachers: Again, not to brag, but my teachers are legit. Any chef that you google that is part of my program, will have a long history of amazing skills & experience. My chef for my pie class, recently won a show on the Food Network! The real life Food Network! He was on TV and everything! He knows a million and one people, so after graduating, I can know those same people too! My cost & portion chef, has owned three of his own restaurants, worked all across the world. My first day with him was one of the most inspiring days of my life. He is also in charge of the Chicagoland chapter of the American Culinary Federation! Which means, he speaks in front of about 19 thousand executive chefs, works with the culinary hall of fame inductees, and everything else you can think of! These are the people that love cooking as much as I do and that I love to be around, am constantly inspired by, and am so blessed to be apart of this program with them.

If you have any questions about the program or the school, feel free to email me! I’d love to keep the love and excitement going for this wonderful program. Any other questions about culinary school, you can also shoot me an email for! I’d be happy to answer anything (: