Well hey there. =)

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Garband

Cook
Joined
May 25, 2008
Messages
78
Location
Northeast Tennessee (USA)
I'm not really sure what to say about myself, so bear with me. =)

I'll start off with some basics... My name is Shayne (in case anyone wants to call me by name rather than Garb or what-have-you). I'm seventeen, I am indeed a male, and I'm a senior in high school. I like to think of myself as an open-minded person, and I have -some- hippie ideals (but I shower and shave and all that good stuff =P). I have played guitar for almost four years now. All of this has combined to give me a "big city" mind trapped in a "small town" boy.

I have hopes, dreams, goals, and desires which I plan to make happen for myself eventually.
One of these used to be to become a chef. I had wanted to be a chef from seventh grade to about.. Oh.. Really, it was the middle of my sophomore year, so about a year and a half ago. It changed to being a musician, and that evolved further, and I made a list of classes to take at the music school I want(ed) to attend. But this last semester I had a culinary class (because even though I changed what I wanted my profession to be, cooking is still fun), and at the end of it we had a "cook anything you want" day to use up ingredients that were going to expire over the summer. So, of course, I tried to think of what to fix.. But no one in my family really cooks, it's just always the same thing fixed the same way (usually chicken wrapped in aluminum foil, shoved into the oven for a little with a baked potato), so I had no clue what to do. I spent many nights (seriously, I laid in bed trying to think of what to do for almost two weeks lol) considering options.

In the end, the teacher had to miss a few days for personal stuff, and the cook anything day didn't happen. So I decided to do it at my house. I started off the day by making a white cake and adding my own little twists. After that, I just grabbed a bunch of herbs and smelled them to see if they would go well together. I pretty much improvised the entire meal (I went in just knowing what herbs I was going to use). I won't go into detail on that, as I don't want to rant that bad. lol But, much to my surprise, the meal was really really good, as was the cake. I had a ton of fun that day, so I decided I was going to cook more. And I've cooked a few more times since then, and each time it's been good.

That's what brings me to this site. Ever since I cooked that jambalaya-esque rice meal, I've been obsessed with cooking, and I'm starting to reconsider going to a culinary school versus music school. Sorry I ranted so much. lol


I look forward to meeting you all and becoming part of the community. =)
 
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Hi, Shayne. Welcome to DC.

You are nicely ambitious and it's wonderful to see you experimenting and testing yourself. If you have discovered you enjoy cooking, take the summer to see just how much you like it by practicing and visiting us here at DC and asking questions of our members.

The first year of college is usually occupied with general subjects, so you don't have to cast your decision in stone right away.

Who knows? You could do both. Emeril Lagasse is an accomplished drummer.;)
 
You have said more than what most say! Welcome to DC, make yourself at home!
 
Good for you Garband. I'm glad you found something you enjoy and aren't intimidated by. I hope you find much enjoyment and lots of ideas here. If you have any questions in the future I hope you'll come here to
D C family.

Welcome and thank you for sharing.
 
Hi Shayne and welcome to DS. I'm new here too. Don't feel bad about ranting on. I really enjoyed reading your story and it sounds to me that you know what you want to do in life. That's great.
Your jambalaya-esque rice meal sounded sooo good.
Nice meetin' ya!!!!!
 
You are the only one who can make this decision but that's good advice to take the summer and see what you think. Being a chef is hard work, no one starts out a master chef, everyone starts at the bottom. My son considered becoming a chef, we even went to the culinary school in north Atlanta area, it was a beautiful place but was going to be pretty expensive. His deciding factor was if he got his soccer scholarship, which he did and he went off to college and now is going to be a lawyer. Going to culinary school is something you can do at any age so if you decided to go to college then later want to become a chef, you can still do it. Get a job at a restaurant as a chef's assistant or something like that and see if it is what you want. But no matter what you decide, learning to cook is a very helpful skill, everyone has to eat so you might as well eat good. Good luck in your decision.
 
You are nicely ambitious and it's wonderful to see you experimenting and testing yourself. If you have discovered you enjoy cooking, take the summer to see just how much you like it by practicing and visiting us here at DC and asking questions of our members.

The first year of college is usually occupied with general subjects, so you don't have to cast your decision in stone right away.

Who knows? You could do both. Emeril Lagasse is an accomplished drummer.;)
Thanks. =) I planned on trying to cook as much as I could this summer.. But food prices are going up and I'm not sure I can really afford to buy a ton of stuff to experiment with. lol =P

I'm planning on going to a college around here to knock some basic academic stuff out before heading off to culinary/music (whichever I end up going with lol) so I could focus better on the culinary/music part. lol

And thanks for that information tidbit. I did not know that about Emeril. lol =)

You have said more than what most say! Welcome to DC, make yourself at home!
Thanks. I'll take up the offer.. But I don't think I'll walk around here naked. =P
(sorry for the lame joke lol)
Good for you Garband. I'm glad you found something you enjoy and aren't intimidated by. I hope you find much enjoyment and lots of ideas here. If you have any questions in the future I hope you'll come here to
D C family.

Welcome and thank you for sharing.
Lol. Oh, I'm intimidated. I watch a lot of Food Network, and I know that I could never memorize stuff and be able to create like, say, Iron Chefs do. They're so good.. I'd love to do that though.
And thanks, I'm sure I'll have tons of fun and be using stuff from DC for a while. =)

Hi Shayne and welcome to DS. I'm new here too. Don't feel bad about ranting on. I really enjoyed reading your story and it sounds to me that you know what you want to do in life. That's great.
Your jambalaya-esque rice meal sounded sooo good.
Nice meetin' ya!!!!!
Lol, thanks. I hate to sound cocky, but it really was quite delicious. =P

You are the only one who can make this decision but that's good advice to take the summer and see what you think. Being a chef is hard work, no one starts out a master chef, everyone starts at the bottom. My son considered becoming a chef, we even went to the culinary school in north Atlanta area, it was a beautiful place but was going to be pretty expensive. His deciding factor was if he got his soccer scholarship, which he did and he went off to college and now is going to be a lawyer. Going to culinary school is something you can do at any age so if you decided to go to college then later want to become a chef, you can still do it. Get a job at a restaurant as a chef's assistant or something like that and see if it is what you want. But no matter what you decide, learning to cook is a very helpful skill, everyone has to eat so you might as well eat good. Good luck in your decision.

That's always been my philosophy... I need to be able to cook no matter what I do, so it's a good ambition to have. And I would LOVE to be a chef's assistant, but since I'm a teenager the only job I could get at a restaurant is being a host/dishwasher, and once I turn eighteen they can drop me below minimum wage. lol


Thank you all for your welcomes and words of encouragement. =)
 
welcome garband. i can't call you shayne, because my old boss was named shane, and the spanish espeakin peoples that i work with always called him "mister chains", so i'm afraid i'd end up calling you that.

we do have a lot in common, you and i.
i'm a small minded guy trapped in a big city... :-p
 
Hi, welcome to the group.

Hey, and thanks. =)

welcome garband. i can't call you shayne, because my old boss was named shane, and the spanish espeakin peoples that i work with always called him "mister chains", so i'm afraid i'd end up calling you that.

we do have a lot in common, you and i.
i'm a small minded guy trapped in a big city... :-p

That's quite alright. You can call me anything you want, just as long as you call me. =P (once again, sorry for the lame joke lol)

I'll gladly trade places with you if you'd like. My little ol' town just has around 45,000 in it, and is only known because of Dollywood and some big artists (Charlie Daniels band came through this year) come through once a year. lol We also house Eastman (of Eastman-Kodak). That's about it. =P
 
Well, hi to you! I have worked as a (self-taught) chef and also wrote a food column for a couple of newspapers in Pennsylvania. Guess the English major came in handy. I have always loved to cook and have lots of recipes and ideas to share. Feel free. Everybody on this site has good ideas and insight into food. So do you. You will enjoy being here.
 
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