Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

1) For the project in general, I am most proud of the job I was able to obtain, keep, and do well at. I never thought I'd be a legitimate kitchen worker while still in high school unless I was a dishwasher or busboy. I'm proud of myself for being able to work and excel in this professional setting. I am also proud of my knowledge on Cuisine, after all the research. For the presentation, I am most proud of how I got through to students. Many came up to me after the presentation and commented that after watching my presentation, they now feel they'll be able to make food taste better. Also, during the activity debriefed discussion, many students asked question, made observations, and theorized answers to those questions that proved to me how much they truly paid attention. Some students brought to my attention thinks even I hadn't noticed. I am proud of this, because it means that I made theses students think in new and different ways.

2) 

a. I feel I deserve an AE for the presentation because of how well I kept the students attention and how I not just taught them content, but got them to think about the subject in a different way. Also, I feel I designed a fun and creative activity that kept the students entertained while demonstrating my answers very clearly and allowing them to put into practice the things they learned. As I walked around during the activity, I could tell this is what the students were able to do.

b. I would give myself an AE because I got an AE on my Exit Interview and Lesson 2, and I feel I deserve an AE on both the final presentation as well as the I-Search paper. I got mostly P's on the small things, like research checks, and went above and beyond with what was required of the mentorship component as well.

3) The things that worked for me were my passion for the subject; it ensures that my boredom couldn't last lint and me strive to always better. Mrs. Ortega and Mr. Rivas worked for me, because they gave me the tools and encouragement to do well in this project. My mentorship worked for me, because they both trained me in being a prep cook as well as providing extra incentive in payig me for my work. Most of the books and journal articles I read worked for me because they were the framework for just about all of my research, far more helpful than web pages and magazines, and kept research checks entertaining.

3) If I could go back in time, I would quit my previous job and worked more at my mentorship. I also would have not only stayed on track with research, but gotten ahead. I would have made sure I always had my headphones so my disruptive classmates couldn't have distracted me. I also would have done something other than mentorship as my second Independent Component, so that I could have furthered my experience in a different way.

5) The senior project taught me how to research. This is an invaluable skill, because now I will go into college knowing how to find reliable sources in sources other than web pages... And I will use less web pages. I also know how to focus on research better. I am also now considering some type of food related job, which I wanted when I was little but cast aside by the time I was 11. I stopped wanted to work with cuisine because I thought being a chef was impractical, but now I know it is possible, and even if I don't become a chef, there are a plethora of other jobs available, such as food developer. Finally, through mentorship, I have learned how to prioritize tasks in a high stress environment. They give me like 4 things to do at once and it's up to me to analyze the situation and see what I should do first and last. This is a skill I know will come in handy in the future.

Blog 22: Mentorship

LITERAL

• The link to my to my mentorship log is on the right of my blog, under Links, labeled Senior Project Hours.
• My mentor's name is Chris Baker. He is employed at The Avocado House in Chino.

Interpretive

• The most important thing I gained from my mentorship is working with a kitchen team. I can now do a "kitchen dance" (a weird combination of ducking, dodging, and softly shoving), and I'm a lot better at the lingo used in a kitchen. (Instead of saying excuse me while walking through a crowd, I know repeatedly state "behind you.") I still need to working on reading sloppy waitress writing. Ive learned a lot about the etiquette of cooking with other, where you are both working on the same thing and different things, together. For example, I could be making one sandwich alone and helping a coworker with two more sandwiches, which he is working on at the same time as working on a third sandwich.

Applied

• My mentorship has helped me understand my EQ first through my mentor. He often drops little nuggets of wisdom while working. Just mall things, but it'll be about the amount of salt to use in a soup, or when to use butter or oil. My coworker, a prep/line cook, also has a lot of information like this. Also, I've made a lot of soup in the last two months and that allows me to experiment with interesting combinations. They let me make what I want, so I usually start with a recipe and go from there. I'll add sugar, or lemon, or certain spices to alter the tastes and flavors in the soup, which puts my answers to the test. For example, in support of my third answer, I once made carrot soup. I knew the soup didn't taste quite right, and my coworker suggested I add nutmeg. A teaspoon later, the soup suddenly had a very warm feeling and reminded me of Christmas, just because of the nutmeg.

Exit Interview

Content
(1) Essential Question, answers, and best answer.

• EQ: What is the most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish?

• Answer 1: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is by multiple tastes perceived by the human tongue.

• Answer 2: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is to utilize all natural ingredients.

• Answer 3: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to use salt and proper seasoning while cooking.

• Best Answer: Answer 3, because: it is the only answer that, once explained, includes multiple senses, which inherently goes best with my definition of flavor; all but one of the cooks and chefs I have asked came to the same conclusion without my help; salt is universally agreed to be a "flavor enhancer."

(2) Arriving at my answer

I thought of all of these answers at one point or another between finalizing my essential question and February. I often went back and forth between wanting to use any of these answers, or picking a few others I'd come up with along the way. I also kept changing which was my best answer. I believe it went something like.. "My answer 1 sucks... No, I love it, it's my best!..actually, I think salt is the answer, but I don't have enough support... You know what? I think Answer 2 is my best answer! It all makes sense!... No, Answer 1 for sure... No, Answer 3, that's it. That's definitely it." This took place over the course of about four and half months. At a couple of points I got really stressed out. I felt like I had so much supposrt for my Answer 1, and after having my Finding 1 peer edited, I realized my first answer was probably the least developed

(3) Problems
I feel like my biggest problems were research based. I've wanted salt to be one of my answers for six months, but never could find the proper research to support this. It seemed more philosophy than science. Then I expanded salt to include seasoning and looked through past research. It seemed every book I'd read had said one thing or another about salt, pepper and seasoning, even if it was just in passing. I used these little notes as my base for creating the answer, then started researching more deeply to find specifics. I ended up with multiple books on how herbs and spices work, and why they add flavor. Also, in looking up my first answer, I found many examples of how salt can help a meal. It was clear that even though salty is a taste, salt is something independent of that. In this way, the two answers are related.

(4)
Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page. The Flavor Bible. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
McGee, Harold. On Cooking and Food. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. pgs. 397-399

The Flavor Bible is one of my most important sources because it helped me develop my question and helped me decide on all three answers, in some way at least. It has become my Bible.
On Cooking and Food helped me realize my idea for a third answer was plausible; it gave me scientific explanation as to how it would be possible for seasoning to truly affect a meal. Without this book, I don't think my third answer would've been my best answer.