Learning the City and the Kitchen

My first week in NYC has been busy to say the least! I moved into my one bedroom apartment in the Financial District, finally recieved all my shipped boxes of belongings, went grocery shopping (which if you live in the city, you know is an adventure in itself), and started culinary school at ICC! And of course ate at some amazing places along the way.

At the apartment with my first round of groceries...here goes nothing!

One of my new favorites in the city is Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's ABC Cocina on E 19th Street. The dimmed restaurant and friendly staff serve tapas style, innovative dished created by sustainable products. It's a great place to try little plates of everything while you enjoy a basil, jalapeño margarita.

Another one of my early stops in the city was momofuku noodle bar on 1st Ave. It's one of David Chang's many restaurants in the city, and it's my particular favorite. Not to mention that David Chang also attended the International Culinary Center, so he has a special place in my heart. Anyways, it's a quaint little space, filled with people clawing for Korean pork buns and ramen noodles. I absolutely love this restaurant, so you can only imagine how excited I was when I learned that they take orders for pick up!

After some delicious meals and a full belly, it was finally Tuesday and time for my orientation at ICC. I was nervous to say the least. Meeting a school full of new people and starting a new program that I have limited knowledge in, not to mention knives and blistering ovens would be involved, can be very daunting. But after my four hour orientation, I was reassured that this is exactly where I should be.

We were told to meet at school at 8:30am on Thursday, ready to get our final few items and dress in our chef's coats for the first time. I kind of expected it, but my pants were too long, my coat too baggy, and I had no clue how to tie my neckerchief. But I threw it all on anyways and made it upstairs to the Level 1 kitchen. There, myself and 13 other classmates waited for our chef instructor to arrive and begin. Our chef instructor turns out to be a badass woman chef who has worked at some of the top restaurants in the city. I cannot wait to learn from her and hopefully be half as cool as she is one day.

The first class was especially exciting because as we approached our work stations, we noticed our brand new knife kits waiting for us. It was Christmas a month early! The rest of the class we took a tour of the kitchen, learned the proper French names for all of our equipment, and began to learn knife skills. By the end of the class, we even started cooking, learning to make pearl onions A L'etuvee and green beans A L'anglaise. By the end of class my dogs were barking and I had a growing blister on my finger from my hand clenching the chef's knife too tight, but honestly, I couldn't be happier to be in the city and learning to cook classic french techniques at ICC. Cheers, and nom on!