On Culinary School, Career, Growth, and Blogging

I graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in the spring of 2004.

Culinary school is a relentless learning experience that demands daily growth. Curriculum pushes students to learn about food and cooking in many different ways simultaneously: by reading, listening to lectures, writing, tasting, and most importantly, doing--ideally by cooking in real world situations. For two years a milieu of learning envelopes students and opens their eyes to new ideas and techniques while it hones a skill set that will serve them for years to come. Like all learning experiences, however, culinary school is not intended to be a one time injection of information. Certainly it teaches many particular skills, but the real point of school is not to impart any sort of static knowledge, but rather to illuminate for the student the process needed to learn every day of her life.

For a few culinary graduates this learning process continues simply by the nature of their jobs out of school. A sous chef or executive chef must continually expand their food knowledge to keep sharp in running a restaurant and maintaining a popular and economically sound menu. A chef must vigilantly study his profession by reading industry publications, attending conferences, developing better management skills, and learning new ingredients and techniques. These traits are the hallmark of a career in the culinary arts. For many graduates their work after graduation does not push them in this manner and it is far too easy to treat their professional lives after school as an ordinary job. From a distance a job and a career may look identical, but if your work is a career you push yourself to learn every day and grow professionally, while if your work is a job you simply show up to do what is required of you, then go home and wait for your paycheck. Most people settle for jobs when they could have careers because there is nothing about their work that forces them to be more engaged and as a result they waste daily opportunities for growth. Culinary school makes its pupils learn; once on their own, students need to pressure themselves to learn.

Which brings me to spring 2008, nearly four years since I parted ways with NECI.

Unfortunately the last several years of my professional life have seen me relax a little too much and not push myself to learn. At times I've even acknowledged to myself that I needed to do something about this very fact, but I've never quite known how to accomplish it. A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that what I need is a food journal. This one small item would allow me to record ideas as they occurred to me, make notes on any food articles or books that I'm reading, remember successful meals and recipes I've tried at home, take down ideas as I research items I'm interested in testing for use at work, and generally be a focal point for all my thoughts and ambitions related to food.

The Black Peppercorn blog is a combination of this new physical food journal I've begun to keep and my long standing interest in writing and blogging I recently began to explore in my first blog, Splitting Eights in Canton, NY, a blog exploring gaming and life in general. One problem I've had with that first blog is that although I love board games, I really don't play or think about them enough to be able to write on the topic several times each week. Perhaps I will someday, but right now it's just not happening. Food, however, is a different story. I work with and think about food every day of my life. I cook at work, I cook at home, I read food books and food blogs, and I write in my food journal. With any luck (and a little work!) all this will translate into lots of interesting posts on this blog, and lots of professional and personal growth for yours truly. Happy reading, and please give me lots of feedback (especially the constructive criticism kind, that's the stuff that will really help me grow...or quit, if I'm really not cut out for this!)