I just graduated from the Culinary Institute of America

Receiving the Academic Award

It happened! OK, it didn't just happen I worked really hard to get here. I am now officially a graduate with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio. I was one of 18 graduates on December 20th and it was an amazing journey. When we moved here seven years ago I would never in my dreams have imagined that I would be here today.

I am kind of still in shock that I am not attending class anymore. We have spent most of the last two years working together. It just feels like I am on Winter break and we will be together again in a couple weeks. It is very sad to think I may never see some of them again. I hope we are able to stay in touch and work together in the future.

Class of December 2017 in San Antonio

What am I going to do now? Well I am a very ambitious person. I always am coming up with new ideas and find new projects to work on. My to do list involves working with one of my instructor chefs to learn about being a personal chef. I have been recruited by a special equipment maker who wants to train me to be the local representative/trainer. I am hoping this will help me stay in touch with the school and all my contacts there. My ultimate goal is to produce a line of fermented foods and beverages to sell locally and for that I need a commercial kitchen. Unbelievably I have found the perfect space which used to be a bakery and I have backers waiting for me to finish a proposal for the space.

I am not even sure what my full plans are going to be for this space because not only do we have two large walk-ins and enough space for several kitchens and office space but there is a large green space behind the building that I can work with. I know I want some additional garden space because I love growing my own ingredients. Before we moved to Texas I had huge gardens and grew a large portion of our vegetables for the year. There might also be space for a couple large commercial smokers and some seating for a small restaurant. Who knows?

My plans for the kitchen itself is for it to be fully furnished with equipment and walk-in space for week to week rent. There really isn't any place for chef's to be able to work in a commercial space that doesn't require a large investment which up-and-coming chefs really need. I have some friends that are amazing at marketing and I am hoping I can get them to work with me to make this space a real launchpad for chefs in San Antonio.

If all that wasn't enough I want to try to get back to my blogging roots and share that whole experience with you! I was planning to do a vlog or podcast today on all this but I just caught a cold and my already husky/raspy voice goes downhill really quickly and usually leaves me voiceless. I recorded a video a couple weeks ago and while editing I realized I am probably going to have to do a voice over for it because my voice is sometimes really hard to hear. I am hoping that in the future I can get a camera and microphone that will help with hearing me clearly.

I can't wait to share this next journey with you! If you have any questions or suggestions please leave your comment here or Facebook.