Well into my third year of culinary at Newtown, I have come a long way, (my hair has gotten even better since freshman year!) JK, but for real; I have picked up lifetime skills that will go with me far into my life. I can confidently cut into anything from a chicken to an apple, julienne to quarters. I am very glad to have gotten exposed to proper knife skills. Probably the best thing I have gotten out of culinary is the confidence to prepare foods. Many people can be intimidated when it comes to preparing meals. I attribute this to primarily the snack shack, being thrown in and having to make the correct product because there were paying customers expecting their food.

            I’ve seen that transferred to when I make something on my own time. I will be like “yeah, why not? Let’s try it…” and see what happens. I am very glad I don’t have to rely on a microwave for my food.

            As for what I would like to see next semester, I think it would be kind of cool to have “cook-offs” like a mini version of our midterm. It would be an intense competition on maybe a block day per month where we have some ingredients and must create something by the end of class, for a grade. Sounds kinda fun to me, idk.  _bryce

Through the first four months of advanced, I would say that my skillset in the kitchen has improved as much as it did through a full year of culinary one and two. The workload is greater, and the tasks that must be done are more demanding than what I faced last year. The biggest thing I have learned so far is how to cook for others. In culinary one and two 90% of the time you are only cooking for yourself. The big change in advanced is that 90% of the time what you cook is going to somebody else. Cooking for others has made me more careful, and caused me to pay more attention to quality. I’ve learned how to make dishes appear better in presentation. Cooking for others has brought me a whole new set of skills. Be it the snack shack, paladar, feed the need, banquets, or staff events, I am constantly getting good experience making food for others. So far in advanced by technique has improved greatly as well. I know how to use new equipment in the kitchen, and have improved my skills with equipment I already knew of coming into the year. My work ethic has been improved because of advanced. I’ve learned how to persevere and grind through tasks that may be seem dull and unenjoyable, such as dicing onions or peeling potatoes. I’ve learned how to power through and complete tasks that may be difficult, such as butchering whole chickens or roasting peppers. Through this class I have learned how to focus and get things done even when it isn’t easy. Another important skill I have learned in advanced so far is how to work under stress and pressure. Especially in the snack shack, there are often times when tension is high and food needs to be produced under enormous amounts of pressure. I’ve learned how to settle the nerves and simply do what needs to be done. This ability to deliver under pressure is something that can translate and help me outside of the kitchen as well. It’s been a great start to the year for advanced and I look forward to the rest of the year.

- John Carlson

So far during culinary, I have learned to be a short order cook by working in the snack shack. Working the grill and fryer was a lot of fun and I wish there were more football and soccer games so I could work some more. By doing feeding the need, I have learned to put all different foods together and sauces on the spot. One thing I wish we did in advanced culinary was learn to make more foods. I know that we do paladar but sometimes the food is prepared from the day before. My fellow classmates and I were talking the other day and we feel that we should just be cooking more foods so we could learn some more. Michael Parker

Working the snack shack is often the same thing every time working either the grill or fryer. Whenever I am in there most of the kids have their hands in their pockets or they are on their phone, often they mistake the orders, or shout them out multiple times. Or even tell the people on the fryer about the sandwich that is needed for fat sandwiches.

Whenever I work the snack shack the kids that are there often don’t understand what to do and only a few kids do know what to do. Whenever I turn around the kids are often just standing around and eating all the food.

Jimmy Widmann Mrs. Hoagland 9/10/13 Snack Shack Blog Snack Shack Blog The snack shack was quite successful for this soccer game as there were no major errors and the game was decently busy. The only errors that were made were forgetting the bacon and hot chocolate in the kitchen before the game. Besides that everyone was working together and making sure that it was a successful night. I was working the register during the game and it was a very nice experience that I enjoyed a lot. I work as a cashier so I was good with the money and totaling peoples orders. I also enjoyed the aspect of seeing all the people at the game. One of my jobs as a cashier was to get the food for the customers once they had ordered and the rest of the people working did an excellent of keeping up with orders and at no time did we run out of anything. All in all it was a successful night and the only thing that we need to work on is our mise en place.

Jimmy Widmann Class 1 Culinary blogs: October October Snack Shack Blogs During my October snack shack workings I worked as a cashier. Each night everything went pretty smoothly. One of the nights was exceptionally busy as it was boys soccer senior night, and I noticed something that could make the snack shack run better. The fat sandwich station tends to get behind on orders and I believe it would be beneficial to train the people working that station before the games so that they know how to make each sandwich. At the boys soccer game on multiple occasions the person who was grilling had to go over to help the fat sandwich person, which simply slowed production. Another suggestion would be to assign everyone their position at the beginning of the week or something along those lines and have one day where those people train for the job that they have so that everyone can work more efficiently. Another suggestion is that we could keep a tally of which fat sandwich’s we sell the most of and then prepare one or two of the most popular sandwiches. This would be a good way to improve efficiency in the snack shack and make the customers happy.