What is it like to be in the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) Bootcamp?

My week in the CIA (Culinary Institute of America)

Day One

We first started at 6am sharp on Monday where we gathered for some brief introduction. We were given breakfast and then had a 2-hour lecture on the basics of knife-cutting and different knifes, health and safety, and a lot of things that we never thought about.

We then started practicing different cuts on both veggie and fruits for 3 hours.

After, we ate fruit salad and finished the dishes that the student helpers cooked. One good thing about the CIA compared to the other culinary institution is the fact that they have dish washers. I know a lot of my friends in culinary school who spend hours scrubbing the grit off the pots and pans, and I feel like although it is a humbling experience, it does detract from the main spirit of cooking / baking / filleting / wine / service.

Day Two

We were assigned into teams. My team was in-charge-of cooking a set list of dishes and we just scrambled to start.

Day Three

Today my team was more organized, and we felt that we definitely bonded over the pressure of cooking to time limits. My team was tasked with cooking the baklava, potatos, silician-style spinach, and roasted lamb with garlic.

What was interesting was definitely the frenching of the lamb. When you go to the butcher to buy the lamb, bet you didn’t notice that the lamb has already been frenched so that there is no extra meat stuck to the ribs of the lamb!

The procedure was intricate, complicated with strings and various equipment. The student helper deftly held the string, and slid the excess meat away. When it was our turn to try, we realized it was much harder than it looked, as we yanked and pulled at the strings to remove the meat. It was hard work.

I decided to take on the baklava! Because I have a sweet tooth. The baklava was quite tedious, you had to pile filo pastry, apply a generous dollop of butter, pile more filo pastry, add more butter. We also had to cut the walnuts into tiny pieces so that it would make for a nice crunchy feeling in the baklava. I ended up preparing 3x butter than I initially prepared, very terrible mis-en-place preparation haha. But the baklava turned out amazing at the end. And I couldn’t help but beaming with pride when everyone complimented, and made orgasmic sounds while hungrily munching and grabbing for the baklava at the dessert table.

Day 4

A dinner at the student-run restaurant Harvest was included in the course fees.

Everyone dressed up, I got a lift from a retired doctor who was living at the same accommodation as me, and we went to dinner.

I like the concept that this restaurant is a safe lab space for students to learn and make mistakes, but also gain confidence for actually running an actual restaurant.

The students were very professional, and there seemed to be a strict maitre d' in charge of the placement of culinary and made sure everything went about being mechanically precise.

Food was good, especially knowing that it was done by budding students, and they did try to be creative and use novel techniques.

Day 5

Decided to make saffron pasta. Hand grinded the saffron and the flour, and made sheets of pasta.

I really enjoyed my week at the CIA, although I found it to be too short to learn so much of the intrinsic culinary crafts! Got to know fellow foodies and aspiring chefs from all walks of life, and we all bonded over hearty meals. We even decided to try the other restaurants on campus on certain evenings.

It was grueling waking up at 5am every morning in order to be ready for prep. While talking to the students there, I learnt that they sometimes have to stay up through the night in order to prepare for the notorious "breakfast class", and get ready to serve breakfast at 7am lol

I did this post because I had a lot of questions about the CIA before I joined like the 

-program structure

-course outline

-timetable for bootcamp

and I hoped that I have given you a taster of what to expect at the CIA.