Monday, May 31, 2010: Memorial Day

We woke up early this morning. I could hear Carl moving walking around the kitchen. Carl is originally from Texas and wears cowboy boots, jeans and a cowboy hat most of the time. After a wake up shower, I went upstairs to see if Carl needed any help. That is part of my "deal" with Carl. Provided school does not take up too much of my time, I will cook breakfast once a week. So not only do I get to stay in a historic home (I prefer castle, lol), but I will get some experience cooking for the general public. This will also be a great place to meet people! There is an extended family staying here that came for a wedding this weekend. It is apparent that they know Carl and his daughter, Bailey, and have stayed here before. They left this morning to go back home. There is an English gentleman who is here visiting his son. His son works for the city of Denver. Robert, the Englishman, is now a US citizen, retired and living in Rhode Island. There are two other couples here also, quiet and keeping to themselves. Both Carl and Bailey are friendly and talkative and seem to get to know their guests during their stay. I am looking forward to this adventure!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

We were out of Salt Lake City by 9:30am. Utah was very pretty-very green. Once in Wyoming, we stopped for a late breakfast at the Dunmar Inn. It was owned by a retired FBI agent and the menu reflects this-The G-Man Special (ham and eggs) and The Witness (corned beef hash and eggs). Then we were on the road again. I forgot how flat Wyoming is, not much in the way of beautiful scenery. It wasn't until we got outside Laramie that we saw any trees!
We made Denver by about 7pm, unloaded the car (did I say we drove a Mazda Miata 1100 miles to get here?) and went to dinner at Le Central, An Affordable French Restaurant (so many choices, so little room in the stomach). I am staying at a bed and breakfast while I am here in Denver. Jordan and I had stayed here a month or so ago when I was apartment shopping and Carl, the owner, offered me a room in what he calls the "dungeon". The B&B is in the Capitol Hill district and looks like a castle! Jordan and I walked to the restaurant and checked out all the buildings along the way. This area must have been quite "chi-chi" in it's day!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

After a farewell breakfast with friends, and some to-do with packing up the car, we are off to Denver via I-80. I-80 is a LONG, long drive. Did you know there is a Beverly Hills, NV? Me either! Otherwise the weather was gorgeous and the roads were clear. We made it to Salt Lake City by 7pm. Time to sleep!

Background

I have always loved to cook. And when you have a stressful job, some creative outlet is needed to keep you sane. Mine has always been cooking. Over the years I have taken cooking lessons at the local community college, the local cooking school (Nothing To It) and spent two weeks in Tuscany learning Italian cooking. By day (and occasionally by night), I have been a nurse. Over the course of 30 plus years, I have worked in Orthopedics, Surgery, NICU, ER, ICU, Recovery Room and as an Office Nurse/Administrator. When my passion for cooking began to outweight my passion for nursing, I felt it was time for a change. Somewhere in my 20's, I decided that I did not want to reach the end of my life only to look back to find there was something I had not done solely because I had been afraid to do it. And that being said, it still took a figurative kick in the butt to motivate me to change; along with the continued support and encouragement of the man I love.

I spent some months looking into cooking schools: the CIA in Napa, the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco (a Cordon Bleu school-how exciting to follow in the footsteps of Julia Child and attend Le Cordon Bleu?! Never mind that it was not in Paris!), the Cordon Bleu schools in Sacramento and Las Vegas, and the local community college culinary program. All these programs were from 9 months to 2 years in length and you spent only four hours a day actually cooking. While in Denver for a nursing convention, and finding myself with downtime one day, I googled cooking schools in Denver and came across the Cook Street School of Culinary Arts. For me, it was perfect! Love at first sight! Four months of intensive studies for 8-9 hours a day, culminating in a three week culinary tour of France and Italy. Yum!

While many of the schools in the United States offer culinnary programs, the opportunity to actually practice culinary skills occurs in four hour increments on either a daily basis or several times a week. You must also decide if you want to practice Culinary Arts (savory) or Baking and Pastry Arts. They are usually not a combined certificate or degree. I was going to take Baking & Pastry Arts at the California Culinary Academy but the more I thought about narrowing my studies, the more I realized I love to cook as much as I love to bake. A dilema! Enter Cook Street School-they offered it all! An intensive program that covers a wine education, entrees (they believe and teach menu planning using foods that compliment each other), garde manger (literally means keeper of the pantry) and bread baking & pastry. Cook Street also offers two additional course which I decided to take advantage of: a Personal Chef Course and a Business course (for the food industry). At the end of four months, a trip to Paris and Northern Italy is offered to add "frosting" to the proverbial culinary cake. Cook Street also offers a three to six month continuing education in northern Italy should you decide to take it. The possibilities were endless!!! I drove over to Market Street to look at the school and talk with Meghann Diggles, the Admissions Director. What I found was an older building in the LoDo district of downtown--lots of wood and brick with a decidedly European feel to it. I fell in love with the building even before talking to Meghann. She suggested I spend a day with them to see if I liked the teaching methods at Cook Street. So on Friday, March 19, I donned a chef's jacket, a little chef's hat, an apron and joined the class. There was a lecture, then the practical portion of class. The class made cassoulet, a salad with goat cheese, small chocolate tarts, coffee cheesecake bites, cheese spiked dinner rolls and foccacia. Not only did they make it, but then they all sat down and ATE it, along with two wine pairings. Once the meal was done, they went around and critiqued it. Everyone had something different to say. I thought it was all fantastic! I went back to my hotel room and talked to Jordan about changing schools. Denver was further away, but I would be gone for a shorter period of time (4-5 months in Denver vs 9 months in San Francisco). He was all for it! I quickly applied for admission and in a short time was accepted into their Professional Progam.