• Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I kept being late to my class after culinary that I realized the importance of preparing before your actual cook day. Halfway through the first quarter, I noticed how much time could be saved just by taking a day in advance to do little things, like cut, sort, and whatever else you can do. This saves so much time, especially time typically spent on just walking around the kitchen to get the ingredients you need. I have noticed that preparing the day before has nearly cut my cook time in half, and helped me be way more relaxed while cooking.

Another very important lesson I learned from trial and error in Food Literature is the importance of reading over a recipe before you start cooking, and I mean the whole thing. Typically, I just skim over the recipe and make sure I have the ingredients for it, but the importance of the recipe became apparent to me when I was halfway through and I didn’t know how to skin a lemon. I ended up having to pull up the original recipe and even watch a tutorial on my phone before I could move on. I learned that looking over the entire recipe and reading the long paragraphs from the chef can prevent many complications.

• Growing up, my Aunt Reeny used to tell me the importance of precision on every ingredient but I never really understood, surely a little more sugar couldn't hurt. Through this class, I learned that the more I stuck to my original recipe and added the perfect amount of ingredients my dish came out better. The amount of ingredients in each meal severely affects the taste and appearance of the dish. The more dishes I made this year, I realize that my Aunt was right, and precision is KEY.