Meet Him
Name:������������ Sheridan
Nickname:������ Dan
Age:��������������� 18
School:���������� The Culinary Institute of America
Location:�������� Hyde Park, NY
Job:���������������� Student
March 19, 2001
Hi, my name is Sheridan Su. I am currently a student at The Culinary Institute of America. Just recently, I was notified of my externship acceptance from a restaurant located by the Prudential Center of Boston, MA: Ambrosia on Huntington. This award-winning restaurant is located on Boston's fashionable Back Bay. It's futuristic fusion cuisine is a blend of Provencial French and Asian, set in a eclectric, trendy setting. To learn more about the restaurant, check out their website at AMBROSIA
4/21/01
People have asked me why I chose to go into this industry. "It`s hard work and the long hours suck!", is what they have told me. It`s all true, it is very hard work and we work when people are getting off work. We work when we when wish to spend time with friends and family. Those are sacrifices that all of us in this business must make. But to make customers happy, is all worth it. I want to share a couple of my memories. A couple weeks ago, Ambrosia was invited to do a food show and the Executive Chef asked me to participate in it. Our displays were beautiful and we created a dish that had everybody talking the entire night. There were so many cameras and magazine writers around-it was amazing. Then one lady came up to me and the other chef and she told us about a meal that she had at the restaurant 4 months ago. She remembered exactly what she ate and she told us. She then told us that her meal was the most incredible that she`s ever had. She shook our hands, and then, thanked us. It was such a great feeling. I wouldn`t even be able to describe the way I felt, the moment I heard her words. Another time, just yesterday, the owner recieved a letter. A past customer had written to him. He gathered us all around him and he read the letter out loud to us. In this letter, the customer said that the service was excellent, the dinner was thebest she`s ever had and that Ambrosia is definitely the best restaurant in Boston. Things like these make me very proud. It makes me proud of what I am doing and it makes me strive to work even harder and more. We`re back in the kitchen preparing the food. The majority of us are rarely seen and known and may sometimes feel underappreciated. It is the most incredible feeling in the world to hear responses such as these, to have people remember you and to remember your food. It makes everything "worth it". That is what drives a chef to do what he does. Making people happy using food is what all chef`s are about. That`s what I`m about.
CULINARY ARTS: A PASSION FOR PERFECTION
-There is no such thing as perfect food, just the idea of it. The purpose of striving towards perfection is to make people happy and that`s what cooking is about. Food pleasures me. I would be satisfied with cooking everyday, year after year. Putting on a white double breasted chef`s jacket and donning a prestigious tall hat with all my pride, tourneing perfectly shaped carrots, peeling vegetables, making flavorful stocks, or fabricating a piece of fish right out of the atlantic ocean-this is a great challenge: to maintain a profound passion and to consistently keep high standards. Having passion for what you do is what it is all about-"It begins when you wake up." Deep gratification is derived from this. Cooking is one of my favorite things in life. Cooking perfection is what I have strived for. I have made it my life. Respect for food is a respect for life, for who we are and what we do. Chef Eric Ripert once said, "In cooking, you must havea lot of passion. It`s not aquestion of moneyor social position; it`s a question of love. It`s a love story." It`s a love for food and a love for what you do. To truly cook, is to have a passion for perfection. Cooking is passion and passion is cooking.
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