I’m an experienced cook. I’ve done my 10,000 hours in the kitchen, maybe even 10,000 hours chopping onions. I know about mise en place. I know how to mince a shallot. I have decent knife skills and keep them sharp. I cook without recipes 99% of the time and nobody’s died yet.
I love to cook and love to learn, but I have no professional training. And so, when I got a cold call last summer from the Culinary Institute of America, inviting me to take on one of their Boot Camps, gratis, I pounced.
Read about my experience in my latest column for Palate Press: What I Learned Inside the CIA.
