To close out the year, our Culinary class made our trek to Denver with all the money in hand that we raised through out the semester. With a busy agenda and two vans full of excited girls, we set off to explore the real world use of culinary.
To start off the trip, we took a tour of the Cheesecake Factory. This restaurant is a very successful restaurant with a great background story and wonderful food. The manager took us through the back kitchens for a few minutes and explained to us everyday processes that occur in the business. As a class, we were them able to ask questions that we had pick his mind about what it takes to get to that level. After all that, it was dinner time! Several minutes passed as we narrowed down our choices from the extensive menu, and then it was time to enjoy! We had a wonderful time!
After the Cheesecake Factory, we decided to enjoy the Aquarium. There were many varieties of fish from all around the world, and we had an amazing time exploring all of them! I liked the otters the best! :)
Te next day, we were given the opportunity to tour the Culinary Institute! That was exciting because we got to see where someone would go if they wanted to go to school to be a chef! The people there had a lot of insight and advice for young chefs like us, and truly would like to see us succeed in this field if that's what we wanted to go into. It was a very informative visit and I learned so much in such a short amount of time!
Following the tour at the Culinary Institute, we visited one of our alum, Derek Ray, at a restaurant he manages in Cherry Creek! His restaurant is named Earl's Bar and Grill, and is one of three in the U.S.. He took us on an extensive tour of the kitchen, showing us all aspects of it from the prep stations to the freezer. After that, we sat down to eat. It was wonderful! Derek did a fantastic job of showing us what a does behind the scenes and his staff was very friendly.
The last stop on our visit was to a cupcake shop called Happy Cakes! It was a small shop, but we got to see what equipment they use to make their big batches of cupcakes and what their kitchen looks like. The owner told us the story of how Happy Cakes came about, showed us all the different cupcakes they make, and then gave us free mini cupcakes in the end! Most of us ended up buying some more because they were so delicious!
All in all, our trip was a very successful one and I learned so many new things while visiting with all of these people in the culinary field! This semester in class has been a great one! We have learned many skills and recipes that I can use in the future as I prepare to venture out on my own. Easy recipes like Shirred Eggs with Ham is a delicious recipe that I can use during my college days! I have learned to work patiently and in a timely manner with my peers! It has been a great and wonderful experience, and if I could do it all over again I would!
