My Restaurant Day

After prepping all semester so far for my restaurant day the day finally came. I was the first one to go as manager because last semester I taken an ethnic restaurant class, therefore I had to go first. I didn’t mind going first because the rest of the semester should be smooth sailing. We have a regular bistro style menu and each person who is managers creates their own special featured menu. On my menu I had grilled egg plants with tomato and feta, a grilled salmon salad, a Bison burger, Chocolate covered strawberries with infused chocolate vodka, and butternut coconut squash soup. Each item was tasty and presentable. Although not a lot of people came to lunch, I still had a good time prepping the food and it allowed us the opportunity for a soft opening and make adjustments to anything on the menu. I am looking forward for the weeks ahead for more people to come in and keep us busy. After my restaurant class a group of friends from school and some German students went to the Meuer Corn Maze near Chilton. If you never been to Meuer’s before then I recommend you go because the corn maze is huge and has a unique design. On average it takes over an hour to get through the two sections of the maze. This was my second year going and each year there is a new design. Some of the maze was hard to get through based on clue and basic instincts. Once we finished the corn maze we bought some fresh kettle corn and headed back home. To get a sneak preview of the corn maze click here http://meuerfarm.com/corn-maze.html and it will give you all the information you need. Overall this was a productive fun day, but it was worth it because I was able to spend it with friends and my new German family. In my next blog we are going to take a tour of the Harley Davidson store located in Fond du Lac. Cheers, Lee IV

My South Korea Restaurant Day

Ahoy Mates! May 3 was the day I have been waiting for all semester. I had my restaurant day with a South Korean Menu. I was nervous because I wanted to make sure the food was tasty and the appearance of everything was pleasant. At the same time I was super excited to have my day because I was able to use my own creativity and show what I learned in class. Another reason I was excited was because my family from Chicago came up for lunch. Since I barely see them; for them to come up was an honor to show off Moraine Park. In the morning I set up decorations for my restaurant and set the task for the team to start to get ready for cook off time. When lunch time came I was ready to shake and bake! Me being the host/manager I was able to greet people and talk to the guests. Halfway through my family came; we hugged one another with joy. As they received their food, I checked around with people to see how their food was and people loved it. My family adored the lay out of my food, center pieces, and choice of ethnic region. After this I felt confident that I have the potential of owning a restaurant one day because I love making great food and speaking with people. After my restaurant class was finished I took my family to Blessed Bee Cupcakes on Main Street. They loved the little shop, and the choices they had. Shortly afterwards I showed my family my new house. They loved it especially since it is a upgrade from the previous house. Once the tour was complete my family headed back home to Chicago, and I finished unpacking my boxes. After a day like that I was finished and was completely wiped out. I’ll catch you on the next blog as I head down to sweet home Chicago. Cheers, Lee IV

A busy month of May ahead

Ahoy Mates! Welcome to a brand new month! As the end of the semester nears, my backpacking trip is getting even closer. I am looking forward to finishing the semester because it has been a busy semester, but with all that being said it has been a fun voyage thus far. Looking ahead for this month I have some major events coming up such as my ethnic restaurant day, the 2012 National Restaurant Association Food Show in Chicago, projects, and much more. It is my honor to share my journey with you and I am always open to comments and new ideas. So mates sit back and let’s welcome May! Cheers, Lee IV

Moraine Park Foundation Gourmet Dinner

G’day mates! April 27 marked another super busy day for me. Things began with me attending my sauce class; we made barbecue sauces, a coulis sauce, and a relish sauce. All of these sauces pair great with various types of meats and appetizers. After my class I went to help my friend Rachel move to her new apartment. It didn’t take us long to get things packed and moved. It only took two trips across town to finish moving. Afterwards I quickly went back to school to help out with the Moraine Park Foundation Gourmet Dinner. The Gourmet Dinner is an annual event benefitting the Moraine Park Foundation, which helps support student scholarships. This year’s theme was the Titanic because it marked the 100 year anniversary since the ship sank. Everything on the menu represented the meals served on the first and last voyage. My job for the night was to help out being the drink server, and made sure the drinks were stocked. I had the opportunity to meet staff members who volunteered their time to help out. I also learned the types of wines we were serving to pair with each entrée. I had a great time talking to people, serving drinks, and making this night a fun event. Students and instructors behind the scenes did a tremendous job prepping, cooking, and plating the foods. After the dinner we had to start to clean, but we all did a fast smooth job to accomplish our task. We finished around midnight, and at this point we were all tired and ready to go home. I know for me I was wiped out, and had to get ready for bed because I had to work the next morning. To check out the video I was in for the Gourmet Dinner, click on the Link to see the fun. http://www.morainepark.edu/about-mptc/foundation/2012-gourmet-dinner/ On my next blog I’ll be sailing into the month of May, stayed tuned! Cheers, Lee IV

Fun Day in March

G’day Mates, welcome back to another exciting voyage back to Milwaukee. On March 13, I headed back down to the Food Expo with the baking crew early in the morning. The baking crew was preparing quick breads and other tasty treats to demonstrate for guests to learn new techniques. Since they were doing that I was able to check out the show floor since I missed it the previous day because of competing. I met a lot of people that day from Fox 6, reporter Justine, Cheese Lady Sarah and many others. I was astonished about all the people I was networking with because they gave me a lot of tips of how I can improve my goals and help others with theirs. Not only did I talk to a lot of people, I was able to eat a lot of tasty foods from steak to gyros. The abundance of samples made me full, but I made sure I tried everything to experience flavors I never had before. I recommend if you ever have the chance to check out a Food Expo you should, otherwise you are missing out on a lot of things. After having a good time at the Food Expo it was time to head back to Fond du Lac, because I had class that evening. I must say although I haven’t had much sleep this week, I am having a great time! On my next voyage I’ll be sailing off to Moraine Park’s Beaver Dam campus. I am excited to tour the campus and help select a candidate for the Student of the Year Award. See you soon, ciao!

Cheers,
Lee IV

Game Day

G’day Mates! Monday, March 12 was the official day of the hot plate food competition in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the American Airline Center. After a day of practice our team was feeling pretty good about winning today, although we were a little nervous. I learned if you are nervous about something, that it means you really care about the thing you are doing. As we approached our destination I was becoming super excited to get our food competition started to show what we can bring to the table. Since we had some time to spare before we started, I decided to check out the keynote speaker Duff Goodman. He is famous for his hit television show Ace of Cakes on the Food Network channel. He was an excellent speaker; I was able to take a couple of pictures, and video clip of his presentation. Shortly afterwards it was time for our team to get ready for our competition. We started to plan out what order things were going to be cooked in, then once 12:30 hit it was time for us to start cooking. In the beginning we were talking, laughing, and having a good time because this is what we do best. Midway through the competition things got a little scary because some of the food wasn’t turning out correctly, but we kept our cool and “shake and bake.” The judges kept coming around, checking to see how well we were doing, and asking us questions about ourselves and food. With 5 minutes left we were pushing for time, and then within 30 seconds left I realized I needed to plate my rice. So I quickly ran to grab the rice and shape it on the plate, and then ran the plate to the judges. I felt like the television show, Chopped, when a contestant almost forgets the key ingredient, which is one feeling when your stomach just drops. Afterwards we clapped and took a group picture. Afterwards we had some free time to walk around before the judges came around to critique us.

Thirty minutes passed and the judges came by to critique us, and it wasn’t too good. The way we were judge on didn’t seem like the judges liked our food because there were mixed reviews. After that our confident level went down, and we thought our chance of placing was shot down. Therefore going to the award ceremony we were sad, but something changed our feeling. As they announced the 3rd place winner, they called out Moraine Park team 2. We were stunned; I was like is this real and once it was, I jumped in joy and I think I screamed a little but it didn’t matter because I was glad our team placed. We haven’t placed in four years, so this was a huge accomplishment. Afterwards we took group pictures with our medals and trophy. After an emotional rollercoaster day, our hard work paid off. Some of us were even thinking about competing again, and our next goal is to beat Fox Valley Tech since they came in first this year. We headed home in tears of joy and celebrating our goal. Well mates after a long emotional day, it is time for me to dock the ship because there’s another early voyage tomorrow as I finally get to check out the Food Expo floor. Until then ciao!

Cheers,
Lee IV

New Week New Year

On January 3, I had a productive day for the new year. Like many others I plan on staying in shape and doing something productive each day. In order for me to accomplish my goals I started to write down new things I do each day so at the end of the year I can see all the productive things I did. This method shows things in life are not always negative or bad. Anyways I started my Tuesday with me working out to my new video game I bought for my Kinect Xbox called UFC Training. This workout is the perfect method to get a great workout without leaving the house. I can tell this workout video will have an impact on my body throughout the session. Afterwards I started to cleanup and rearrange my room to become more organized with the different things I have to do each day. Once I finished with my tasks, I started to cook some food for supper. I decided to cook a small hen marinated in beer in the crock pot with vegetables. It turned out really tasty and tender, I recommend for anybody who is always on the go to use the crock pot method because it can cook for hours while at work or doing something else. For people who never used a crock pot you basically put your meat in a pot and let it slow cook for hours and your food is guaranteed to come out tender. Later in the night a group of friends from MPTC and I decided to go bowling at Ledgeview Lanes in Fond du Lac. There were about ten of us that got together to have a great time over the winter holiday. It is always a good time to meet up with friends over break. We all had a good time of course singing, bowling and dancing. My scores weren’t the greatest but one game I did bowl a 189. I hope one of these days my bowling average can be in the 200 area, but until then I’ll practicing until I reach my goal. Well that pretty much cover my Tuesday adventure, until the next voyage I’ll catch you soon! Ciao, Lee IV

Week after Turkey Break

After having a week off from school it was back to reality at school. My day started with going to my vegetables and potatoes class. We did a lot of exciting things such as making twice baked potatoes, baked potatoes, and made random objects made out of potatoes. I always wonder who said you can’t play with your food because in culinary that rule doesn’t apply.

After class I had the opportunity to get a free massage sponsor by MPTC student life. Usually this event occurs once a month, but since by high demand an additional date was added on. I recommend signing up early because spots fill up fast within seconds. Once I was finished with my massage I had to start my salads class. Our main focus was to work on the salad competition on Thursday, so my friend Angel and I worked on our design and made flyers to spread the news about the event. Our main focus was to show people the salads that we made were freshly grown in Moraine Park’s hydroponics lab, and every product was made in Wisconsin. It is important especially nowadays to purchase food that are locally grown and support local business. When foods are purchased locally the food is a lot fresher compared to products shipped from around the world. In my next blog I will tell you the results of our salad competition.

After a long fun day of classes, a couple of friends from MPTC decided to celebrate our friend Chelssie’s birthday at BackYard Grill and Bar in Fond du Lac located on Johnson Street across from Moraine Park. Since the restaurant was so close we decided to walk, instead of driving and wasting gas. The only bad part about walking was the weather was chilly and windy, but that didn’t stop us. We ran across the street without any problems. As we sat we beat the dinner rush, so we were able to get our food super fast. I got a southwestern burger with fries, and it was delicious! No matter what time of the year or day BackYard Grill and Bar is constantly crowded, and has tons of great food to try, everything on the menu is good. After a great meal we headed back to school to play a board game named “Things”. It is a fun game to play with friends, and you get a good laugh from it. We played for two hours; it is amazing how fast time flies when you’re having fun. Well of course all good things come to an end so it was time to go home and call it a day. That’s all for now until next time, Ciao!

Cheers,
Lee IV

Ahoy Mates!

Here goes my first blog! I’m excited to start something new that gives me the opportunity to show the everyday life of a student at Moraine Park Technical College.  I’m in the Culinary Arts Program and throughout my blogs I will try my best to keep you updated with all the fun exciting things at school and out of the classroom activities.

Some more random facts about me are I am a true Bears fan.  That is right, I am not afraid to say or show it. I love sports from soccer to snowboarding; there isn’t a sport that I don’t care for. If you forgot already I love to travel with a passion (check out my bio in the about me tab), I wish one day I could find a sponsor to help with my goal to travel around the world. I also have a huge passion for cooking and love to try new cuisines.

Well mates here’s round one of my blog. I hope you enjoyed it and the many more to come!

Bon Voyage!

Lee IV