Micro Blog: Chris Daniels

My blog for this week is not food oriented, but more directed to the great support from all of the faculty and staff at TCA. Recently, I had a family situation that I needed to be a part of. Not knowing the reaction I would get, I was a little nervous to ask my Chefs for help. I sat down with the Dean and told him about my situation and what my schedule was going to be. Not knowing ahead of time how many classes I might have needed to miss or assignments I would not be present for, I was concerned about my education at TCA. After sitting down with many faculty members, we were able to come up with an action plan to keep me on track in a time of need. I want all of my classmates and future students to know that the TCA faculty and staff do have hearts. In the future, instead of missing classes and putting your education in jeopardy, talk to someone first to see if there is something you can do to help your situation. TCA was MORE than accommodating to my situation for which myself and my family are grateful for. This is just another part of The Chefs Academy that reassures me that I made a great decision to continue my education and career goals at this school. All in all, anytime a serious situation comes up in your life, reach out to the faculty. It can make a world of differences.

-Chris Daniels

Micro Blog: Rico Hawkins

Today is a day of thanks no matter what you don’t have you should be thankful for what you have. As a parent and a full time student and a person that has to work to survive thank GOD for life. The same things that make you smile will make you cry. I love cooking I love going to school I love spending time with my family but I miss my kid’s my son & daughter so my day of thanks was not all it could have been. I say this to you so you can learn from my pain. As we try to learn and go on with our lives thing’s will distract us people will tell us we can’t do it even your friend’s will try to stop you. Some will talk about you behind your back and to your face (We call them haters). Never I mean never let them steal your joy .For when you finish the GOLRY will be yours everything you went through will have been worth the pain and you have now WON even the haters will say I knew you could do it. Could do and would do are two different things. Only the people that care about you, want to see you, me, we, us succeed. Now that we are finish I can spend time with my kids and give thanks that you could learn from my pain. The same thing that makes you cry can make you smile.

Rico Hawkins 

Micro Blog: Carly Hall

How did I get here?  A Journey from Social Work to Culinary Arts   

By: Carly Hall

There is no other place to begin than the beginning….so here we go.  I was in the cool kids “click” in High School. I skirted my way through those 4 years and received my diploma.  I chose to go to the local community college then transfer to ECU because my SAT scores would have been laughed at by any college. Needless to say my 4 years of college turned into 6 but yet again I graduated with a Criminal Justice Degree. Of course I got all the questions “Are you going to be a cop? (no thanks…too dangerous)  Are you going to be a lawyer? (noooo waaaay!  I'm not that smart) You should be a lawyer, you like to debate with people. (What? Really?? ha ha ha)”  Honestly, I knew I wanted to do something in the CJ field but I had no clue what.  So after graduation, I completed about 100 pd107’s (the really long State job applications) and mailed them out along with my resume.  Now the waiting game begins…

So I get my first “real” job with an all-male, medium security prison near Wilmington, NC.  And quickly learned that job was not for me. For the next 7 years I find myself working various jobs in the mental health field and learning everything I can about mental health.  Most jobs were in adolescent group homes and juvenile facilities so I was well versed in juvenile behaviors. I thought I found my calling in the MH field with kids but then was offered a job with the Department of Social Services in the Foster Care Unit.  How could I pass this up?  A government job with benefits, no weekends and paid Holidays. Plus I would be working with the population I knew a lot about, kids! What could be better? Right?  During the next two years I'm involved with some of the happiest, scariest, saddest and most heart breaking situations….day in and day out.  I've seen things that would make most people cry for days or hide under their beds forever.  During my DSS days, I used cooking as my outlet to wash away the horror and sadness of each week.  I’d literally just throw this or that in a pot or pan and see what came out. I started sharing my “meals” with a co-worker and the next thing I knew she was a regular diner at my home.  Then I began to make better meals and share them at lunch with more of my co-workers.  Soon I was making more dishes, sharing recipes and even made food for others to take home.  After several months of cooking, everyone was talking about how good my food was and saying I should go to culinary school.  Yeah, right. Me? Ha!! I barely made it through high school and college….how can I go back to school?  Can I really do it?

Now here I am, present day 2012 and I'm in my first term of Culinary Arts at TCA! From day one I wasn’t sure what to expect and every day is a learning experience. I'm learning to make things “the right way” rather than the way I do at home.  It’s like a whole new world to me. It can be quite intimidating at some points but I made it through my rocky past, I shall soak up all the knowledge I can from the present and build myself a shining future to be proud of.

I wrote all of this and then realized the best way to explain it is through one of Brian Andreas Story People paintings.

 

The quote reads….. “Don't you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you.”

Thank you to God, my parents, my family and my friends for having faith in me while I was making life changing choices.

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to do something different.

Thank you to everyone who answered my 500 questions about culinary schools and how TCA was the best choice.

Thank you to everyone who is encouraging me to keep pushing forward.

Thank you to everyone…thank you so very much.

(insert deep sigh of relief)

Micro Blog: Janice Noguera

Hi, hey, hello, aloha, hola! My name is Janice and I’m from Nicaragua. I’m in my fourth term at TCA. This is exciting for me to write my first blog for TCA. It’s my first time blogging! These past 40 weeks have been so intense for me because it’s brought me to another level of learning on the topic I love-cooking! TCA has become my second house in North Carolina. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am living my dream right now. I want to thank all the awesome people who work at TCA. It is so complicated to explain everything I’ve been doing in the past 40 weeks, my experiences with my freaking awesome instructors, outside of the classroom at events, and learning new ways to cook. It has just been such an amazing 40 weeks. 

Micro Blog: Jorge Zarate-Arenas

Hello everybody let me share with you the steps in my journey that have brought me here and the people that have inspired me to reach my goals. 

My mom was the first person to teach me the basics of the kitchen when I was little.  She told me I had to learn to cook like her, so that when I was away from home I won’t have to miss my family's cooking. My mom told me that someday I would understand. At first none of that made sense to me because I never imagined myself being away from my family. One day in my adolescence, my uncle Juan, who was known in town for his culinary skills, invited me to a tour of festivals in different towns where he was responsible for preparing the banquet for the parties. That was a beautiful experience, because I like traveling to different towns where his reputation was known and I saw how people loved him and admired his work and dedication. I remember my uncle Juan used to say, “Son, if you learn how to cook, this is a very noble profession, and if you do it from the bottom of your heart, it will open the door to wherever your life takes you”. At that time, I did not understand the meaning of his words. When the time came for me to be away from my family, my mother's words showered on me like rocks because there were occasions when I had no choice but to eat food with bad flavor. It was then when I decided to buy some basic cooking utensils and begin to recreate the dishes of my family, starting with breakfast because it was the easiest thing for me to do.  That's when I discovered that basic skills were inside of me, though I did not have the perfection of my mom or my uncle Juan.  Nevertheless, I felt that I had my family close to me again. With the passage of time, through trial and error, I was able to recreate some of the family recipes-thanks to the teachings of my mom and my uncle Juan.

    Many years later, I found my passion in my career as a scuba instructor in the island of Cozumel.  Through my career of meeting people from various parts of the world, I had opportunities to enrich my palate with new flavors and different styles of food. Since then, I’ve gained a respect and admiration for those behind the scenes delivering dishes with dedication and creativity. Since I came to the United States a few years ago, leaving Cozumel to be with my wife, I have taken job openings which I did not particularly care for.  My wife saw my frustration, and recorded a television program, in which The Chefs Academy advertised and promoted a new cooking school in the area. Watching the program lit the spark in my head, and at the same time, the words of my uncle Juan hit me in the face like a frying pan as well. My wife’s gesture has ended up showing me the way to a new opportunity in my life, where I can dedicate my time to something I’m really passionate about again. So far, I’ve only cooked for my wife, who enjoys and appreciates my efforts in the kitchen, but I hope to gain more experience, knowledge, techniques and different cooking styles soon, and have the opportunity to put my enthusiasm into something tangible for others to enjoy.

    I’ve got my inspiration in the career of cooking thanks to my family from whom I got my first lessons and advice, and also thanks to my wife, who ignited a spark inside of me that’s hard to extinguish now.

Micro Blog: Dylan Holmes

     It was not long ago that I was working my way through a string of jobs that I absolutely detested, but had to continue because I had buried myself in bills unreasonable to pay off with my income. I'm a few months in to my twentieth year of life, I had attended community college for a couple of semesters after high school, but most of my “adult” life has been spent in “the real world.” I was living in an apartment with my girlfriend and another room mate, working full time for only a little over minimum hourly wage. I had rent, utilities, phone service, gas, cable, internet, and blah, blah, blah to pay for. I didn't see attending college again as a feasible option in my situation. Between attending class, working full time, and sleeping, my days would've already been devoured, not to mention any other errands that I may have been responsible for.

     My unfortunate situation carried on for a few months, and things would progressively become worse. I was stressed beyond my control, my relationship was suffering because of it, and we had a rocky living arrangement with our room mate at best. A few months ago my girlfriend and I moved back to our parent's homes, and that took some heat off of both of our lives. I'm happy to say that our relationship continues strong! That took care of a slew of problems, but I still worked far too often at a job that I disliked, and I had virtually no higher education.

     My sister, Kaili Holmes is enrolled to start the October term in PA at The Chef's Academy. I've received extensive information about this school over the past year since she enlisted. She graduated high school a whole year early. I'm incredibly proud of her. She'll be starting the program at only 17! Despite that, I found myself constantly upset that I didn't take a similar path as she has. I was not highly motivated throughout primary school, and my college education before TCA was a joke. I was headed nowhere.

     I found a job at a start up cafe in Wake Forest, and I had the realization that I could enjoy the culinary field. It's hands-on, creative, and I knew it would truly help me push my comfort boundaries. I've struggled with that my entire life. I was ecstatic when my family approved. I emailed Ashley for info about the program, and she replied faster than I could have imagined. In the mere weeks following, I had toured, attended orientation, and had all my financial obligations in check.

     Since class has started, I've been more optimistic about my future than any other time I can recall in my life. I'm looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can! I love the common passion we all have for this career and TCA makes me feel incredibly at peace with myself. More blogs to come, for sure, as I progress in my schooling, but I needed to simply express what The Chef's Academy has done for my life, and my outlook.

                       

            “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

                                    -Henry Ford

Micro Blog: Raven McNulty

The “Tart” to my Future

By: Raven McNulty

It was June, the sun was blazing, my cap and gown for graduation stared back at me. I was still undecided on college, just weeks before I had made it to the finals for the Top Teen Talent Scholarship competition. I would be competing for a full tuition ride to The Chef’s Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana in just a few days.  Before we get into that lets jump back a few months, I was the caption of my high school culinary team and we had just gotten 5^th in the state for the FCCLA culinary competition. My heart had been set on baking since I was 8 and cooking really wasn’t my thing. After intense training and competing at Johnson and Wales I knew baking was my passion. We had been looking into The Chef’s Academy for a while but I still didn’t know if I fit there or in Charlotte. My dad came across the competition and I immediately said no in fear of another let down, not to mention the 10 hour drive. As weeks passed the deadline was approaching and my dad successfully convinced me to enter my Banana Pudding Cupcake just a day before.

Friends and family started voting and before I knew it I was in the lead for votes. Just under me was William Hamilton who constantly out voted me for weeks but my friends weren’t going to let that happen. I came out on top for votes and started preparing for competition. I baked the competition recipe twice a day for a week trying to perfect my skills and let’s just say if anyone wanted a chocolate mousse tart, I was their girl. My dad and I made the 10 hour trip from Cary, NC the day before competition. I spent the trip studying for exams since I still had a week left before graduation and thought about what college decisions I had ahead of me.

I had never been so nervous and excited at the same time. I had never been to Indianapolis and I knew that the competition was going to be a great experience regardless of the outcome. On little to no sleep we arrived at the Indianapolis campus and began to wait for competition to begin. William Hamilton, whom I thought to be my biggest competition, sat at the table next to ours making note cards while I jammed out to “Call Me Maybe.” I knew if I wasn’t having fun then there would be no way for me to win and I hoped listening to my iPod would help others relax too. Sure enough, William went to get his iPod and we were ready to represent NC the best we could. This one day, this one tart, was going to decide how the rest of my life was going to play out. As we got into the kitchen I was feeling so many emotions and with everyone running around it was hard to keep my hands from shaking. I had an hour and a half to perfect and plate my tart with garnish. As the clock ran down I had 30min to get my tart in the oven, remake my mousse and plate. To this day I still don’t know how I managed to stay composed when things went wrong in the kitchen but I’ll never forget the encouraging words of pastry chef Ben Hardy. After time was up I was beyond proud of myself and what I had accomplished, I even made some new friends too.

We sat in the conference room as scholarships and scores were handed out when my heart began to race. Three of us were left and I knew I wanted William or myself to take home first place. First William was called for third place, I was disappointed, he had worked so hard and deserved to be in second. As my name was read for first place I began to tear up. I wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened. Did I really just win a full ride to culinary school? I had made a path to success obtainable without the weight of debt on my shoulders.  The money wasn’t the most important part, after the competition I was congratulated by chefs and I was told my skills/talent outweighed my experience; I knew I was going places. I had made the best decision for me. Through competition I gained more than just a scholarship, I gained confidence, a friend in William, and I guess my friends and family gained a little weight too. Without a doubt William and I are taking on culinary school by storm and let’s just say this won’t be the last time we compete.  After my first week of school at The Chef’s Academy I know this is where I belong. I finally feel like I fit in and more importantly this school is the start to a very successful career.  A few months ago I never would have thought a chocolate mousse tart could change my life.