Goals and Expectations

According to culinaryarts.about.com, garde manger means "keeping to eat" in French, and the term originally referred to a pantry or food storage area.

In the modern culinary arts, the term garde manger can refer to the chef who oversees cold food production. Similarly, garde manger can also refer to the specific area of the kitchen where cold food production takes place.
(Source: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/glossary/g/Garde-Manger.htm accessed 3/23/16)
 
I did a lot of thinking before taking the next class after finishing the introductory class. I still wasn't sure if the culinary field was something I'd want to delve into, and taking the next class would be another time and money commitment. After learning that there would be some techniques I hadn't done before, in addition to learning more commercial skills like food costing, I decided to take the plunge and jump into the garde manger class.

In general I tend to cook a lot of main dishes, so making more appetizers and hors d'oeurves will be a good skill to learn. Learning more charcuterie techniques will be beneficial as well. I do a lot of smoking on our Big Green Egg at home (I make a pretty mean bacon), but haven't made any types of forcemeat before. Learning more about plate presentation will be another goal of mine as well.