Taryn Visited This Weekend!

Taryn visited! And I finally have pictures.


Taryn came up Saturday morning. Taryn, Cody and I ate lunch at a deli in town. The food was great and very fresh, but a little expensive. After lunch, we headed to San Francisco.

We went to the Westfield mall on Powell. The trolley car was nearby. We still have not taken a ride on the trolley around town.

 We spent quit awhile driving around San Francisco looking for the mall and then looking for parking near the mall. At last, we found parking off Powell Street that did not cost us all of our shopping money.

While looking for coffee in the food court, we encountered a man with a very nice mullet.

After the mall, we walked around Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Unfortunately, there was a massive line for CREAM (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me). I will have to take Taryn and Cody there next time. Cream makes homemade cookies and ice cream. You choose your flavors and make an ice cream sandwich.

For dinner, we met Tim and my school friend, Lisa, at Homeroom for dinner. Homeroom is a restaurant in Oakland that specialized in macaroni and cheese. I had Vermont White Cheddar

Dinner at HOMEROOM

 with roasted butternut squash. It was delicious and lived up to all of my expectations. I will definitely be going there again.

On Sunday, we went to a local restaurant called French Blue. French Blue looks like a decorated room from the Martha Stewart magazine. The decorations and set up are amazing. I had potatoes and an egg for breakfast. Tim had tomatillo baked farm eggs with rancho gordo beans and grilled plantains; Taryn had a cheddar biscuit egg sandwich with black forest ham and arugula; and Cody had the Main Street Special, which includes orange juice, eggs, potatoes, toast and sausage. The potatoes were perfectly blanched, and then baked to perfection. The plantains were the right amount of sweet, then grilled. I don't even know how to explain the perfection of the cheddar biscuit.

Tim's Breakfast: Plantains, beans and eggs

Potatoes and egg. I was very underdressed for this restaurant. I now know not to wear converse

 and a hoodie to this restaurant or any restaurant in Saint Helena.

 My chef's coat with my name embroidered on it.

After lunch I took Tim, Taryn and Cody on a tour of campus. Unfortunately, I could not show them the Viking Kitchen, DeBaun Theatre or the Teaching Kitchen due to testing and filming

Outside my dorm room. We all have pac men with our name.

The view of campus from the herb garden in front of campus

The main entrance

The grilling station behind the kitchen: two tandoori ovens on the left.

The grilling station

The right side of the grilling station: set up tables, multiple grills and a brick oven.

The walk way to the school restaurant. Culinary students work here the

 last 6 weeks of their semester.

This is a view from the back side of the restaurant patio. There is formal dining inside the restaurant. Students serve for half of their time in the restaurant and work in the kitchen the other half of the time.



right: Taryn and I in front of the main entrance to campus

left: A view from inside the entrance.

A view of the lobby                                                              A view of the lobby from the second floor.

 

This is a side view of the Illy Cafe. I will work here for 6 weeks. I will make

pastries for 3 weeks and serve customers for 3 weeks.

An old wine press



A view of the vineyards from campus

On the second floor: The Barrel Room. Lots of events and dinners are hosted here. It's a beautiful room with many large wine barrels that are no longer in use.

I sometimes have class in a large theatre. The school also hosts lectures from people in the culinary industry in this room. One of my instructors competed in the world pastry competition. The United States took 4th out of 22 countries.

The front of the theatre with a kitchen set up with cameras so the

entire room can see the cooking demonstrations. 

The herb garden.

 After the tour we stopped at the chocolate bar. The candy is made on campus in the chocolate lab.

Outside the main entrance near the garden.

A newer building on campus called the Flavor Center. There is a kitchen and a formal dinner room. Yoga is in the dining room 3 times a week.

Stone work outside the main entrance