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I admit, I get drunk on the idea of Food. Ideas and places and experiences cloud my mind as I think about it. Is there any other luxury in the world that can be so changing to the psyche than food? That there's so much to experience and so many things that many of us will never have the privilege of enjoying is so enthralling to me that I find myself consumed by the knowledge that the world is so big and vast. There are people in other countries...

Stories, such as this one in today's NY Times, just absolutely baffle my mind. It's amazing that we can put people on the moon, or embed trillions of copper wires into silicon and somehow make a processor, or how we construct buildings over a thousand and a half feet tall; yet PEOPLE, actual human beings can die in this world in miserable pain without medicine just kills the hope you have for this world. I can't contend that I've experienced pain as miserable as those in the end stages of...

Yesterday marked the end of Baking and Pastry Skill Development. For three weeks, I was immersed in a world very much unlike the culinary side of things I'd grown accustomed to. In looking back, I have fond memories and learned more about the science of baking than I thought would be possible. Our instructor, Chef Rudy Spiess, was a real credit to the Institute and really epitomized what a good Chef-Instructor should do. Now it's back to the grind in Cuisines of the Mediterranean, which is going to be...

Today, I went to Burger Hill Park, a site owned by Scenic Hudson, that overlooks the Hudson Valley and off into the Catskills. It was a neat place and really helps compound all of the beauty in the area into a very small area where you can see a little bit of everything. The above-pictured father and son were great; we caught them as we were coming down the hill and they up the hill. Once the little boy saw us, he decided his trip up the hill was...