My name is Harry, I'm currently a first year part-time student in a small community college in Michigan. I thought it could be neat to document my time in my classes.
I'm only taking two classes of September 12, 2025, in order to get into the swing of things and learn to balance my time between my job, college, and my hobbies.
I'm taking a culinary course, I already have experience, but I wanted to further my abilities as a chef.
Small stack of recipe cards I cranked out before class because I forgot they were due this morning. I really shouldn't start college off like this lmao. Cards include chicken velouté, béchamel, tomato sauce, espagnole, and demi-glace ^^
I don't think anything could have prepared my broke ass for the price of my uniform and equipment, but now that I have experienced the wonder that is Mercer brand chef pants, I can't ever go back.....
I guess I should start this off with some photos of food I've made in class. This is only the beginning, but I wanted to share the few photos I have. Warning for the last photo, animal bones!
It all began with garlic bread. A compound butter consisting of roasted garlic, thyme, black pepper, salt, Parmesan cheese, and thyme spread on a baguette, sprinkled with more cheese, and baked at 350°F for 20 minutes
Next is potato and leek soup. Made with beef broth, full moon leek slices, small dice potatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and heavy whipping cream. We used an immersion blender to get it a bit of a rustic and chunky/grainy texture. It was decorated with dehydrated chives, black pepper, and garlic oil.
Additional photo of our pot when making a fish fumet, we couldnt find the lids large enough for our pot when boiling the shells. Thanks Avery for the creativity!!!
Mushroom risotto! This was the demo that our chef made, she told us all about it and gave us some really good advice. Its made with a vegetable stock, spinach, mushrooms, shallots, pepper, salt, thyme, parsley, and other things that slip my mind at 1am a week later... Lols
Bones! Watch out 🫶
Roasting beef bones over a mirepoix to brown them for some brown stock. We plan to make sauce with it. We made chicken stock as well, we'll be creating some mac and cheese masterpieces with them. Yum!
your expression by accessory- hair, nails, jewelry, and fashion, are all stripped from you. you are defined by your actions- your creation. that's very beautiful.
on the flip-side, culinary teamwork is rather annoying and some don't find this place to be a sanctuary- a place of artistic expression like I do.
why are you telling me to toss the plating aspect because.. "it ends up in the stomach anyways" ?
is the novelty of culinary... not the beauty of the canvas you have worked so hard to paint? is it not the pride you bask in when the creation you have embedded your soul into is feasted upon by the eye before meeting its imminent consumption?