specialties

When I tell somebody I'm going to culinary school, a popular question is: "What will you be specializing in?"

The program itself doesn't have formal specialties, except that you can take a less culinary and more hospitality/management track. I am definitely more culinary (or more arts?) so I won't be going for that. I plan on learning as much as I can about any/all cooking methods and styles and types so I have more knowledge for experimenting's sake.

I'm interested in a little of everything, as anyone who has seen me in my undergraduate career can attest to. There I went all over the liberal arts and chose a major based on how easily I could complete it (based on prior coursework), so I could continue dabbling for the rest of my time in school. And though I don't regret my decision in the least, at times it does feel like specialization is the key to an actual career, or respect, or any number of those adult-ly things. (I have a sneaking suspicion though, that life is too short to spend on adult-ly things. Maybe.)

If you had to push me to specify an interest, I would have to say fusion. Playfully fusing things that have previously been thought unfit for combination. I think I once declared somewhere that it's possible to have any three ingredients go together. It's all in the preparation (and texture too probably). Perhaps someone will prove me wrong on this. Like immediately. In the comments.

I'm also interested in sauces, that supposed afterthought to a dish that can be its saving grace. Because if you think about it, mediocre things of all kinds have been made palatable by a kickass sauce. (Which reminds me, that salisbury steak my team burned at Red Cross Disaster Kitchen Training would've very well been inedible had it not been for the gravy.)

So there you have it, fusion and sauce. I'll be fusing and saucing it up, no doubt.