It's been a long and bumpy ride, my fellow aspiring chefs!!

Today was my last day in college in Intermediate cuisine, and for some reason I felt a little sad. It's really weird coz I've always wanted this semester to end as quickly as possible...but when it actually ended, I felt like I'm gonna miss it. After all, I did have lots of great memories with my fellow classmates as well as my chefs.

Zalfa, Sally, Roberto, Pedro, Polyanna, Nathalie, Ted, Ray, Kay, Katie, David, Park and Jamie. These were all my classmates since Basic cuisine...and I gotta say, they've been really awesome as each of them has played their little parts in making my college days very interesting, motivating and entertaining.

Zalfa's always been good with flavors and experimenting with different recipes. She's not afraid to try new things and to learn thru trial and error. This is something I could learn from her...coz I've always been afraid to attempt anything that might lead to a failure.

Sally...there's only one speed that she knows and that's FAST!!! She's like this Road Runner woman that always seem to be the first person to serve the dishes. She moves like lightning and works like a machine. I love it when she works next to me, coz I tend to work a whole lot faster. She sorta sets the pace for me...and I try to match her pace all the time...and everytime I try, I end up serving my dishes on time. Her speed is like a disease...i caught it all the time! lol..

Roberto is just this really funny dude...he's like the class clown. Normally class clowns are never good in class work...but believe it or not, he's like one of the best in my class. He always sets a standard for the class and he might not know that I have actually attempted to meet those standards. I believe that my drastic improvements have a lot to do with competing with those standards.

Pedro...oh am I gonna miss him. Unfortunately, he ain't gonna be with us next semester. However, he's also one of the experience ones in my class. He always makes us taste his food...lol...I remember when he was next to me in class, he always asks me to taste his sauce. Unsurprisingly, it's always better than mine. Not many ppl know this, but I've actually improved my sauces by observing they way he makes his sauces.

Polyanna...the only thing I recall about her is when she accidentally burned her workflow on the stove. And that happened today...and I thought it was kinda funny...coz there are lot of things you can burn in a kitchen, but a piece of paper just doesn't seem to fit in to a typical kitchen scenario. But that poor girl had to continue cooking without the workflow for her reference.

Nathalie...omg, this girl is like the stress machine. She takes everything so seriously and stressfully in class that even by looking at her, I become stressed out too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing...in fact, I think it's a good thing to be stressed out about what you do, coz that means you really care and love what you do. If not, would you even care to stress about it?? She reminds me that cooking is something that I care about...and there's all the reason in the world to be stressed out about. Oh did I mention that she rides a bike and she's one of the reason why I'm considering to learn it!! But also mainly becoz of the "cool factor"...lol.

Ted is the only Korean guy that I feel knows what he's doing. He's really new to French food...but man, does he learn fast. His learning curve is always going on an upward direction, unlike some of us. He improves little by little as the course goes by. Some of us becomes stagnant at some point of time, but he's really consistent. BTW, he looks like that Korean singer called RAIN. Lol..and he likes it whenever I tell him that.

Ray Lee...he's this macho looking Korean dude with an extremely fair skin and built body. I love the way he speaks coz he always has that UMMPHHH in his voice. He's also very gentleman as he always helps me to carry some of the heavy items. Not like I couldn't handle it...but u know, I let the man do a man's job!

Kay...gosh, wat kinda name is that?? I always tease him bout his name. He's only joined my class this semester so I don't know much about him, except that he demands me to call him "OPPA", which is like a polite and respectful way of calling someone older than I am in the Korean culture. And I never did call him that...and I told him that it was becoz I don't respect him. Well...I really don't!!

Katie...she's pretty quiet in class...but I remember one time when she saw a huge cockroach on the hallway, she was so shocked and was like shrieking in a high-pitched voice. Lol...that was really funny, coz the cockroach wasn't even that big, but she kept insisting that it was really big. Seriously, I don't know why I remember these things!

David...he's of African-Asian descent and he was born in Singapore. He's got dark skin and he understands Chinese. That is just freakin' awesome! Anyway...I always see him as an artist, coz I saw him one time during demo, drawing a really nice picture on piece of paper. From then on, I tried observing his dish presentation in class and it's always very abstract and creative. However, not all the time that the chefs approve of his presentation, but for some reason, I've always liked it.

As for Jamie, he's also a very quiet and low profiled guy in class. He's really good in his presentation....his dish always look very pretty and creative. He's also very gentleman as he tends to help me unload heavy items...once again...not like I couldn't handle it. Hehe..

Finally...Park...believe it or not, I've never actually had a proper conversation with him. He's such a quiet guy...and a bit mysterious too. Anyway, he's kinda like the weakest link in our class....but he has improved so damn much. Chefs like to pick on him...sometimes I pity the guy.

As for me, I'm just VeRoN most of the time. I like to mind my own business and keep a low profile. I don't like to get involved in things that I don't give a shit about. However, I have a very bad habit of always being in the third person's point of view. I like to see things on a clear angle by distancing myself with people and issues...and just try to keep everything real. I'm very much an observer....and I learn best thru observation, which is why I always tend to analyze ppl's behaviors and try to use it to my advantage.

If you've read til this far, I hope I didn't bore you yet. I'm just dedicating this blog post to all of my classmates who've been with me from the beginning until now. Not many of them know that each and every single one em' has contributed to my improvement in their own li'l strange ways.

However, it's the chefs who I really need to thank....Chef Ross, Chef Anita, Chef Andreas and Chef Mark. It's such a shame that I've always been a person who doesn't make a habit of thanking other ppl for the things they've done for me. I know I really should thank my chefs in person...but I wasn't brought up in a free expression environment, which kinda makes me a mute when it comes to expressing myself....I guess that's why I write blogs. I really wanted to approach Chef Ross today and thank him in person bout all the stuff that I've learned from him. I wanted to tell him that he's such a role model...and it'd be awesome if we could have him as our restaurant chef next semester. But of course...me being me...I just ran thru those words in my mind, but it never came outta my mouth.

I also wanted to thank Chef Anita for being our practical chef from the beginning. She was kinda like our "mother" chef coz she's been with us since Basic. She's taught us from cutting juliennes and brunoise of vegetables up to serving a full three-course meal. I mean...that really is something, innit? I know I haven't exactly been a big fan of hers, especially during the time when she picked on me, but after all, she played a major role in my culinary education and I putting all other things aside, I really am grateful for her.

It really has been a long and bumpy ride...I've just fulfilled the final check point and the next thing ahead of me is the finishing point. I could already see the finishing line, but in between me and the finishing line is a whole lot of hurdles that I gotta jump through before getting there. Honestly, I cannot wait to get there...I just can't!!!

So..I'll be back in KK in a couple of day's time. I'm having mixed feelings about this homecoming. I know from the beginning that it's not the wisest decision to go back home in between Intermediate and Superior..coz I don't wanna get distracted...but i guess it's something that I have to do. Coz after this trip back home, there's a big possibility that I won't be going back for a very long time.

Anyway...I should really stop now. Cheers buddies!