My First Culinary Experience

Every year I visit my grandmother during the winter break to learn new things about the Turkish cuisine and her secrets in the kitchen. But this year I wanted to have a more professional experience and that is why I decided to visit a culinary academy to learn from professionals who are experts in cooking.

I found a course for people that are my age called "Intro to Professional Kitchen for Adolescents". I visited the Culinary Arts Academy of Istanbul also known as MSA (Mutfak Sanatları Akademisi) and the minute I entered, I knew I was going to have a fantastic time. 


I did visit MSA before this course. My friend and I attended a workshop called "Burgers and Fries" and it was amazing. We cooked two types of burgers; beef and chicken and we also learned how to make the crispiest french fries and onion rings. Since that workshop I wanted to have a broader experience and a longer course and this break was the perfect opportunity. Spending two hours in a tiny station amazed me and I wanted to have a broader experience. Then I saw a course during my winter break. From the very first second I saw the course online, I knew that I was going to have an amazing time there.  

I can say that this winter break was the best and the most exhausting one I've ever had. Every day we had a theory lecture and an actual cooking class. In the theory part we got to learn about the history and the techniques with a demo from the chef. In the cooking part we prepared a couple of dishes and applied the techniques that we learned. 






The first day was the one that required a lot of techniques. We learned how to properly hold a knife and how to cut julienne, brunoise and many other fancy types of chopping and slicing. Also we had a whole chicken to clean for our next dish, Crispy Baked Whole Chicken. I did not enjoy cleaning blood clots from the inner lining of the chicken but the final version of the chicken turned out to be extremely yummy.

The second day was on sauces and soups. We prepared a Minestrone Soup, a tomato sauce and a béchamel sauce. The tomato sauce was the hardest to prepare for me because I hate and detest tomatoes from the bottom of my heart. But with this experience I can now prepare a dish that has tomatoes in it.But I am not sure if I will though. The béchamel was also a little bit tricky because you need to make sure that the roux and the milk mixes well to have a silky texture without lumps. 

Then the course continued with pizza, rice, seafood, poultry and red meat, and as a last course; patisserie, the art of desserts. I waited for the patisserie day impatiently and I can say that it was the most sugar loaded and the tiring day of the entire course. But I can say without hesitation that patisserie is more strict however extremely fun. 

Cooking and baking are completely different. In cooking you can add more butter and take off something that you do not want to add according to the recipe that you are using. But in baking you have to be precise and use the exact measurements in order to get the perfect consistency. Cooking is more about the method where baking is more about technicality. At the end of the course I realised that I am into both cooking and baking because they are both things that I cannot give up on.

On the last day of the course, we got into the kitchen of the academy's restaurant and prepared a meal for our parents. It was my very first restaurant experience. Everyone worked on their own station and I was responsible for the chicken. I was a little bit nervous in the beginning but everything turned out to be okay in the end. I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot of things. Plus, I loved working in a busy kitchen a lot because the smile on people's faces when they tasted were priceless. 

This two week course was a great experience for me and I now consider being a chef as a profession in the future. Thank you MSA.