Nice to meet you in this course and this is my first years of collage. I came here to America for about four years. In these recent years, I had been very confused and lost about the future because I felt that everything was messed up until my high school teacher asked me what my dream was. To be a chef, be a man that can bring happiness to the people by food. The hospitality management is useful and it offers all the skills for challenging the society.

Before i came to America, my dad was my instructor, leading me through this cooking pathway, always letting me cook because everything comes from practice. He tried to send me to other restaurants and hoped I can learn more from them. The first chef that I had met was Master Lin; he never let me cook and just gave me some trivia. I often felt unhappy about it and even wanted to leave until he said something in front of me. He said “the reason that I don’t want you to cook is because I want you to learn everything about the kitchen first”. A chef is not only cooking, he should be omnipotent. It’s a modern society here, you can find cooking methods on the internet and there will be an opportunity to get more experiences. Fortunately, I found this course and believes that it can really help me because it is an academic education. This course attracts me most because it will teach me how to manger a business.     I like cooking, but I am more interested in how to own a restaurant. I believe these four years in college can strengthen our foundation and develop our relation network. We don’t know what will happen in the future, but we should work hard now because all that you’ve had prepared is for tomorrow.

I am attending City Tech in the Hospitality Management being a graduate from William E.Grady High School. I took the culinary arts program for 3 years and found it very interesting but it was more interesting when I’m cooking with my friends. My teachers, Mrs. William who is a graduate from City Tech and Mrs. Yourman who is a graduate from CIA (Culinary Institute of America)  taught me about cooking methods, knife skills, and having hands-on experience by working in the teacher’s cafe.

During my high school career, I also participated in the C-CAP program which provides hands-on experience in a kitchen so students can learn. The C-CAP programs also give out scholarships but not for free, as students need to participated in the C-CAP competition and past the preliminary which I didn’t but it was exciting and Tense at the same time but it was a good learning experience. Other C-CAP programs I attended were Winter Chef, Job Shadow, Spring Chef. Winter Chef and Spring Chef are the same but at different time of the year where students traveled to Kings borough Community college to learn different culture cooking like Italian, French, Chinese, etc for four days straight,  Job Shadow is when students traveled to a professional dining facilities for hands-on experience and learning how they operated. These programs help me improved and taught other kind of culture food that I never heard of which was interesting. I still think that I have a lot more to learn before I choose what I want to be in the future. High School was exciting not just by the programs but also because of the Staff and student/friends. I join the chess Club with my friends and we won second place with team effort and this was the first time Grady Chess team got a trophy which we placed on the wall in the teacher conference room and I received a trophy for winning most of my individual games.

Originally, I thought about being a Chef but there were other options in the culinary arts career so I decided to wait and go through college to see what I really want to do in the Culinary field. I believed rushing to your goals unprepared is a terrible mistake as people should take their time and study at home and at college to make sure they know everything they need to so that they can succeed in their dream.

I was always encouraged by my family to try new foods. Still to this day I am a very adventures person. I love to try new foods even if they might seem, or look weird. I was born and raised in Queens New York. I went to Long Island City High School, and there is where it all began. I was mentored and trained by two wonderful teachers, Mr. Matsis and, Ms. Molite. They saw the passion and love I had to learn about cooking, and told me about C-CAP.C-CAP is a organization that looks for young high school students who dream to become chefs or a part of the culinary industry.

I’ve done a lot of competing to get where I am today. I am a firm believer of will power, as long as you set yourself a list of goals and remind yourself that you can do this, I believe that you will. I was given many opportunities to do workshops that trained me on safety and sanitation, knife skills, basic skills, and job skills. I was also trained with people skills, such as how to handle a sticky situation. When I worked in NBC Commissary in Rockefeller center I put those skills to the test. I had to deal with a lot of people some doubted me and told me I’m in the wrong career path, after hearing that for a while I really thought I was. But I didn’t let that discourage me and I worked my way through it. Because some people like, Executive Chef. Steven Mule a NYCCT graduate thought I was going to be perfect in this industry. I told him about my goals and dreams. He put me to work at the grill station, deli, hot station, cold station, prep cook, and catering. After working here it really opened my eyes to all that I can do. Before I started working here I made a list of goals and planned on achieving as much as I could. When it was time to go back to school I sat down with Chef Mule and talked to him about the next steps in my career. Here is where I was convinced City Tech would be my new home.

For every stage in my life I make up a list of goals. Currently some of my goals are to continue to gain experience working in all types of settings in the industry. That way I can find out what exactly I want to do in the future.