Sun, Yard work and kitchen Withdrawals.

As it sounds I am still unemployed, actually... worse, I am doing yard work, YARD WORK. I have yet to find anything that I hate more then yard work. I am doing it so I can take that internship with chef Kieffer, but that has come to a standstill, he was supposed to send me some insurance forms, but that was about a month ago we have not come in contact seance. This summer has made me depressed to say the least, It looked like that pizzeria 712 was looking real good, I got some face time with the sue chef and he sounded really optimistic about letting me work there, but when I call the head chef he told me to call back late august. I have even gone to almost every single Japanese restaurant in Provo/Orem and told them I will work for free, but still nothing. I really want to quit doing yard work, but I am afraid that chef Kieffer will contact me, but if I have no money I will not be able to go, so I continue to persevere looking for any way to work. as I said: I am having kitchen withdrawals.

So in summary: This summer is turning out pretty bad.

My personal "Farm to Fork"

In my last post I said that not much was going on for me, but then the next day something did happen. well... I have chickens in my backyard and I love to use there eggs for all of my delicious food, but every year we get a rooster in our new batch of chicks. it had been a year sense we got a new rooster and out of no where my dad said this: "Lets kill the rooster today". At first I thought that he was joking, but after a couple of seconds I realized that he was most defiantly not. I was okay with the idea because we had done it in the past (I had not personally done it). By the time I caught the rooster, my father had already gotten a large pot of water boiling (to help feather it). we had two roosters and my dad had "Chopped" the first one, and then it was my turn. I was holding it by its feet, after a couple of seconds it became docile, I laid it's neck against the log, it did not take long for me to raise the hatchet and to hack at it's neck, but it did not just cut threw, I had to hack about five times until the neck was only being held on by some skin. I looked down at my apron and it was covered in blood. Some people say it was odd that I named the roster before I killed it, But I guess that is just how I roll.
After that I feathered it, took the guts out (I will spare you the disgusting details) and Broke it down, It was amazing, I was chasing it around the yard a half a hour ago, now it was just two breasts, two legs, two thighs and two wings. Now I was out of Ethan the Butcher mode and was in Chef Dutcher mode. I had decided to brine it over night (so it would get extra moist). I looked to see what is in my pantry, and decided that I should make Italian herb Chicken breasts, and buffalo wings. the wings where fine, defiantly not my best work, but the breasts where great, the bread crumbs where home made and the herbs I put in was delicious, I even fried it in clarified butter. My father thought that it was wonderful.
I fell that doing this is important, I always knew where my food came from, but there is a whole new depth of respect for my food now.



Me right before I Chopped "Rudy"

Never take yourself too seriously.

I have not posted in a little bit because not a lot has been happening, the general, going to culinary school, cooking dinner, so on and so forth, but if there is any thing a can post on it is the best/strangest time I have ever gone looking for a job. In a nutshell myself and a couple of other students (from my high school) burst into a restaurant dressed like pirates... yes I know, but hear me out. It all started at school we where doing a skit about pirates and afterwords one of my frends yelled out "LETS GO GET A JOB A PIRATE ISLAND PIZZA!" and at the time seemed like a great idea, but I was not open yet. so we waited till the restaurant opened (acting like pirates the whole time) and drove over there. when we got there we opened the door and all yelled "AARRRRR", the hostess seemed surprised and amused, I walked up to her, looked at here and said "Arrrrr ye hire'n" and that was when she started to laugh. they did say that they where taking applications, so we grabbed some a left because none of us remembered our SS#. we we came back we did pretty much the same thing, made a lot of noise, dropped the applications off and left as I said before, Never take yourself too seriously.

Internship, It is looking good.

Well, today is Sunday I met with Jason Kieffer and it went great! We mostly just talked about what sort of things that I would be doing if I do intern there. It was great, The cafe was all about using fresh ingredients from local sources and making it from scratch, even the stocks and to be truthful MATC dose not exactly make all of there stuff from scratch, lots of frozen breads and pastries and having somewhere that has the same philosophy as I do is wonderful. I am extremely exited for this to work out, but there is always a downside... Gas. If this dose work out then I will be doing yard work, so I can do more work, but lucky Chef Kieffer talked about maybe making it so that I can get paid a small amount for working up there, And if that will pay for gas money, then I am ecstatic! It looks like I will be starting in the summer after school starts. I will post more as I find out more.
But today I had another adventure, as I was trying to get home I got lost, which I am notorious for. long story short I was in Utah... and I ended up in Wyoming. it was not good. now hopefully my parents wont read this because they don't know that I got that lost.

So that was my day, I am so happy I am finally moving forward, I have felt like I have been floating in a stagnant pool for a while. My culinary career starts now.

Internship!?!?!

As you may have heard I said what mattered to me was not getting money, but working and lucky for me I have some resources, anyway I was trying to get a hold of a Chef Jason Keiffer (http://chefkieffer.blogspot.com/), but was having some difficulty getting any info, but after a couple of days of looking i had finally found it, here is the are the emails that fallowed:

Hello Chef Kieffer,
My name is Ethan Dutcher and Nancy Weller suggested that I should talk with you about the possibility of an internship with you up in Park City. I am finishing up my first year with the MATC Culinary program and would be grateful for the chance to work with you.

Thank you
-Ethan Dutcher


Hello Ethan,

My team and I would love having you aboard. Is there a good time that you can visit our facility and chat with me?



Namaste

CHEF JASON C. KIEFFER

HEALING PALATE
Enlighten the Mind-Nourish the Soul



Great! Sunday (the 1st) would work best, but I would be able to make Saturday (the 30th) if we do it sometime past 5:00 PM.
Thank You
-Ethan Dutcher


Thank you Ethan. I will be in the office/kitchen on May 1st Sunday. Let's move forward on this date at the Park City Medical Center at 9:00AM



So yah! sounds great I am so happy, but the big problem is gas money, I am almost sure that this is going to be an unpaid internship so I will have a lot of trouble getting it. but things are looking up for me, I am way excited and I will tell you guys all about it when I get back on Sunday.

The discovery -The VERY beginning - Part II

After those lemon bars I did work harder, but it did not feel like work... it was just fun. I mostly made cakes and desserts, but that soon transformed into baking, I loved making baguettes and other fun breads, and after I came home from San Fransisco all I wanted to do was make sourdough. Unfortunately sourdough seemed a little out of my reach and it was not long after my mother made a deal with me that I would lose interest in baking. She bought a book of beginner recipes and told me that if I could cook my way threw that book that she would take me to the Chefs Table In Orem, which is the only fine dining restaurant in Orem/Provo, so I was pretty excited. I remember getting 3/4 of the way threw that book when I started to do a little more complicated recipes. after I got done with the book I was not only able to go to the chefs table, but my mother was able to set it up so that we could talk to the head chef, Chef Kent. We talked for over an hour, but the thing that I really remember, the thing that I carry with me to this day is that expectations will make are break you If you don't live up to them then you are a disappointment, no matter how good you are, if you meet them then you are okay at best, but if each and every time you exceed them... then you are truly great. I use this in everything that I make, I have not yet achieved this, but I will get to that point no matter what.

The discovery -The VERY beginning - Part I

I titled this post "The discovery" Because I remember the first time that I had discovered cooking and it was undoubtedly the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I fist started to play with the Idea in seventh grade, as most seventh graders I hated homework and I loathed math so the thought that I could cook all day instead of going to some collage to do more papers, projects and math, but at that point I wanted to be an animator, I would make stop motion with Keynote and sprites with my best friend Andrew, but being a chef was always at the back of my head when I was thinking about my future. the point that I vividly remember is when I was at my house with my friend Terrin when my parents where gone. although we would usually stay out of my house when it was only us because we where convinced that a monster was living in my house, but the hunger for lemon bars helped us overcome the fear. this was really the first time that I had cooked without someone to tell me what to do. something you must know is that I am massively dyslexic, and when I read that you needed to put in 1/8 teaspoon in my lemon bars i read it as 1/8 cup... as I am sure you can tell those lemon bars where inedible to say the least. as I was cleaning up when my mom got home I remember asking her why cooking was so hard, why I could not just make a something and letting it flow she told me that if I keep working at cooking then someday I can just flow, I can make something on the fly without restraint. I remember thinking that I will get to that point no matter what.