Culinary Basic Training: A "Fantasy Camp for Cooks"
by Richard A. Pinkowitz

Cooking gives my life tremendous joy and deep satisfaction. That's why I ended up at the CIA's Boot Camp.

Curiously, I wasn't raised in a home centered on good cooking. For my Mom, cooking was a chore. This didn't change when I married. My wife JoAnn had a more extreme view: she saw cooking as a repugnant responsibility.

Then, two books changed my life. Curried Flavors by Maya Kaimal offers recipes that are clear and well written, allowing me to create Indian meals with subtle layers of spices. The second one was Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef, about learning to be a chef at The Culinary Institute of America. It was the tale of a commitment to culinary perfection. This book gave me the passion for the school, the courses, the professors, and the chefs.

Honestly, CIA Boot Camp had been on my mind for a while. So I lurked on the CIA website and saw Culinary Boot Camp—Basic Training offered on a week that fit my schedule. I signed up, prepared to make my own commitment to culinary perfection.

JoAnn had heard me rave about Michael Ruhlman's book and accepted my plans for Boot Camp. Then she happened to read the syllabus. The next thing I knew, she had signed up for the same class. We headed off together for this culinary vacation in Hyde Park, NY.

The CIA is a picture-postcard campus overlooking the Hudson River. The autumn foliage views made our trip especially spectacular. The CIA students were mature, polite, considerate, and quite focused. They treated us as guests everywhere on campus.

Boot Camp is a fantasy camp for cooks but also an intense, exciting experience. Here I had the chance to express my passion for cooking, joined by class members who felt the same way. On day one, I changed into the chef's uniform of pants, jacket, and toque and felt totally transformed.

Sure, the class is called Boot Camp, but Chef John DeShetler ("Chef D"), a veteran chef-instructor and CIA alumnus, was not a barking drill instructor. He spoke calmly and kindly but you never doubted his competence. Our group of 16 people was divided into four teams and we began refining our foundation of culinary skills and building on them.

The CIA teaching kitchen is industrial strength. It contains all the pots, pans, spoons, bowls, mixers, and knives in the sizes you need. Even better: no cleaning pots and pans—the student assistants did that.

On day one, we covered the basics of knife skills. On day two, the tension was palpable since this would be our first day of cooking. We had to cook the menu in the study guide and plate it by noon. I took charge of sautéing chicken livers for a Creole dirty rice. By day three, I felt in control in the kitchen. That day, my contribution was Sicilian-style spinach.

By day four, I had learned that proper cooking can be a very intense process requiring concentration in preparation and that working under a deadline can be tough. I had taken on the 40-clove chicken, but there were cooking delays. I had two hours to complete a recipe that typically takes three to four. So I improvised, which Chef D encourages. I cut the marinating time, pushed oven temperatures, stayed focused, and kept cooking. The chicken was plated on time and everyone ate some. It was a deeply satisfying dish.

The final day of Boot Camp was the ultimate challenge. We were given ingredients and told to create the menu from scratch. Our group applied all our skills to the task. It was a successful finish to the week.

Unfortunately, that meant the five-day Boot Camp was now over. JoAnn and I left the CIA very unwillingly. We spent the following weeks talking endlessly about the experience, the intensity, and the passion. We learned a lot, had fun, and realized how much more there is to learn. Fortunately the CIA offers so many more courses that JoAnn and I will have many opportunities to return and continue our lifelong learning.