Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I am most proud of my improvements in speaking and presentation skills. I feel that with the lessons we’ve completed, I have gained much more confidence and composure when it comes to presenting, especially in a much more complex, lengthy presentation.

(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE    P       AP    CR    NC

I would give myself a P- for my final presentation, I believe that I met all the general guidelines but still could’ve improved on some. I believe that I could’ve done more to make my PowerPoint more engaging, but I believe that the way I personally interacted and reached out to the audience made up for that oversight.

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE    P       AP    CR    NC

I think an appropriate grade for my senior project would be an AP-. Despite some shortfalls, I believe that I made the best of what I worked on and I was still able to provide a compelling senior project.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

Finding a mentor and mentorship itself was a non-stressful yet fun experience that really helped me get excited about my topic. I’ve grown to enjoy my topic more and more, in a way that I see further exploration in the future.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

I would definitely work toward setting better habits for myself, especially when it comes to productivity. With these better habits, I would be able to journey through the senior project process more consistently and effectively.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

The senior project has helped me to consider my future more avidly, leading me to further exploration and consideration. Mentorship has led me to the experience of working or shadowing under an expert, something I’ve never experienced before. Senior presentations have helped me become more confident in public speaking and overall confidence and composure. These various experiences have helped me taste working in more professional environments.

Blog 23: Exit Interview Prep

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is How can a restaurant provide an appealing and delicious dining experience? My answers are communication, attention to detail, and teamwork. My best answer is attention to detail because detail can be expressed in so many different ways and allows the restauranteurs and chefs to truly be unique.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

When I started to learn more about developing a restaurant, I found that deep thought and detail is put into the dining experience. I learned about color psychology and how to make the environment suitable and attractive to customers. I learned about the psychology of restaurant menus and how they heavily thought out in order to give the best impression. By researching fine dining service and etiquette, I learned of all the different techniques and details that servers implement when serving the customer. Through various interviews, I’ve observed the power of detail in the kitchen, a place where precision is key. The customer expects great detail from the moment they walk in, the moment they walk out.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

During the first EQ meeting, I had realized that my EQ was a little too specific, making finding answers difficult. With my adjusted EQ, I was able to expand my search throughout Culinary Arts and fine dining. Following my Lesson 2 presentation, I realized that the first answer I had initially presented on was much too broad, leaving little room for answers two and three. After much careful thought and inquiry, I was able to reset and establish my three answers.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

During my journey, I came upon many great sources, but here are two that really helped me build up my answers, my Culinary Arts Interview #2 and the film Front of House: Dining Etiquette. My interview with my mentor was very useful because I got to go deeper and ask him more about his career and personal experiences. The stories that he told helped me build images and scenarios, giving me a perspective of working in a restaurant. The film Front of House: Dining Etiquette was a very detailed and realistic view of eating in a fine dining restaurant. I was able to learn timings and cues within the dining experience, as well as service expectations. This source taught me the perspective of the guest.

Blog 22: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

(a) Include this statement: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 33 hours of work.”

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

Front of House: Dining Etiquette. Perf. Mark Kushner. YouTube. Community College of Philadelphia, 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.

(c) Update your Independent Component 2 Log (which should be under your Senior Project Hours link)

(d) Explain what you completed.    

Independent component 2 represents a significant part of my research process, one that enabled me to conduct more typical research, as well as hands-on experimentation. The main focus behind this component was fine dining, what is expected from the experience and how to execute it. In the beginning was my research process, which then led to my experimentation phase, with my findings and new experience I could then move on to the planning phase.  How would I conduct my dinner party? What are the expectations of fine dining? How could I essentially be my own restaurant for one night? These are the questions I had to take into consideration when planning. The planning consisted of even more research, I searched for possible recipes, restaurant themes, even menus from other restaurants, and much much more. I also began to make schedules for when I would conduct trials, when I would go shopping for ingredients, and of course when to host my dinner. My trial run was a gruesome 6 hours of comprehending the recipes, practicing them, and trying to recreate them, this was an essential step because it made sure that the dishes would be cleaner, more efficiently made, and more consistent when the actual dinner came around. The day of the actual party consisted of an hour of grocery shopping, 3 hours of prep (Basic ingredients prep as well as the environment, decorating), 3 hours of total cooking time throughout the night, 2 hours of serving dinner, and an hour of clean-up.

(e) Defend your work and explain the component's significance and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.   

(f)How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

My EQ is, how can a restaurant provide an appealing and delicious dining experience? Independent component 2 really allowed me to dive deeper into the reality of fine dining. It gave me a slight look into what actually goes into running a restaurant. It brought clarity into my research because it let me experience the benefits and woes of working in a restaurant setting. I was able to learn different styles in the process, allowing me to add more pizazz and elegance to dishes, making them more appealing. Since I had conducted an initial trial, it allowed me to taste what I was making and if it still fit my intentions for my menu. From this trial, I was able to tweak and adapt the recipes to the taste I desired out of them, making the dishes more delicious.

Blog 18: Answer 2

Skilled hands, delicately plating the smallest of dishes.

1.  What is your EQ?

How can a restaurant provide an appealing and delicious dining experience?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

A restaurant can provide an appealing and delicious dining experience through communication.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

A restaurant can provide an appealing and delicious dining experience given its attention to detail.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• Ensures dish is artfully and cleanly plated and presented to the customer
• Attention to measurements and other variables allows for a consistent product
• A dish changes hands throughout a kitchen, each cook or chef’s undivided attention ensures that the quality of the product will be carried out until delivery

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

"Casual Dining vs. Fine Dining." WebstaurantStore. WebstaurantStore, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 03 Dec. 2015."

6.  What other source supports your answer?

Purves, Brendan. "Food Plating: The Art of Food Presentation." The Art Institutes Blog. The Art Institutes, n.d. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

7.  Tie this together with a concluding thought.

The fine dining kitchen is one of the most demanding and highly-skilled workplaces and one that requires the utmost amount of attention. When dishes are crafted, all senses are used to monitor quality. Quality and consistency are top motives in the kitchen and if they cannot be reached, a unsatisfied client is inevitable.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

Hosting a Fine Dining Dinner Party

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

Initially I plan on scheduling more time for library research, as I want to develop my knowledge on the presentation of the dishes and entertaining a Fine Dining clientele. I also plan on observing my mentor as he goes through the same process of hosting a dinner party. Next I will be spending more time with my mentor to help me hone in my kitchen skills so that I can achieve the greatest efficiency and consistency during the very demanding environment of running a kitchen. Following the sharpening of my skills, I will go over the recipe-making and developing process with my mentor so that I may be able to understand recipes more in the hopes of making my own. With the understanding of recipes, I will then start to pick and develop different recipes to think and visualize what will work best, during this time I will also start to create my theme for the meal. Now we begin the experimental phase, first will be the experimentation of the individual recipes, recording the different results from each so that I can provide a consistent experience. The experimental phase will also include some small scale trials before the final product. Lastly, the time will come for D-Day, which will include final ingredients check, kitchen prep, meal prep, hosting the guests, and lastly short documentation/log/interviews.

   

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

In order to show evidence of completing 30 hours during the Independent Component, I plan on conducting brief interviews of my mentor and any other subjects involved along the way, mainly to establish the educational and experiential value of my specific Independent Component. I would also like to document my work through photo and video content, in the hopes of providing an inside look at my Independent Component, walking the audience through the research, learning, experimentation, and eventually the final product. By documenting and sharing my Independent Component in this fashion, I will be able to satisfy the comprehensive intentions of this project.

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

To kickoff, I intend to take a trip to the Cal Poly Library, in our first visit I feel that time spent there was to limited; therefore, it is of my strongest intention to schedule time for some thorough research at the library. Specifically, I plan on researching place setting, presentation methods, kitchen/table etiquette, and the demands/inner-workings of a fine dining kitchen in order to provide insight on how to prepare my kitchen and myself for utmost quality and efficiency. I am glad to say that my mentorship has been a very valuable resource to my cause thus far and I plan to spend a lot of time there in preparation for my Independent Component. In that time, I hope to hone in my basic cooking skills, as well as experiment with different recipes and cooking styles. Additionally, as my mentor’s experience led to the fruition of my Independent Component, I intend to work with him in creating the plans and menu for the dinner itself. It will also be important to practice the dishes and conduct trials of the dinner before the actual full-scale product.

4. Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

Lesson 2 Reflection

The calm and relaxation I needed after completing Lesson 2

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

I am proud of my energy and enthusiasm during my presentation, something I really wasn't expecting, it just happened.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

      AE

    b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

I believe that I deserved an AE because I had the great volume and audience interaction/engagement, I think I had a very hands on use of my prop that taught the audience something new. I believe I also had an aesthetically pleasing and informative PowerPoint, a very engaging intro due to enticing the audience with cheesecake, very in-depth research in which I cited many sources, lastly I think my activity was very helpful in grasping my EQ and answer, as well as myself going around the room throughout to view progress and to answer questions during the activity.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

Compared to my first lesson, I think all the components of my lesson worked well together, I was most proud of my hook and activity. I believe that my energy and enthusiasm really helped the audience get excited to participate in my activity.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

I needed to have compressed my presentation more, I had tons of content, which is great but put me in a time crunch. So if I did it again, I would more evenly emphasize different points/topics.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

I don't have much of a clue at the moment because I feel my EQ needs to be adjusted in order to find additional answers.

Independent Component 1

When my mentor first taught me cheesecakes and piping.

LITERAL

(a) Write: “I, Kyle Desiderio, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 43 hours of work.”

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

What helped me when completing my independent component were mostly recipes. Here is the document where I kept all the recipes, procedures, and ingredients lists.

Independent Component 1 Planning Document

(c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.

(d) Explain what you completed.

Together with Jacob Smith, we made a cooking show that incorporated or two senior topics, film editing and culinary arts. In the beginning, I got to gain much experience in baking, later I was able to do more research into recipes and how to make personal adjustments to them. In the end, I finally got to make the dishes I had been researching into. That portion of the process is what you will find in our cooking show,  recipes, ingredients, and how to put it all together.

INTERPRETIVE

Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

Independent component helped me develop as well as gain new skills and experience, as I have mentioned earlier, I was really able to develop recipes to my own liking as well as research into what I wanted to make. I was able to bake closer and closer to perfection as well as learning the essentials to cooking pasta. While I have made films and experienced different sides of filmmaking, it was an interesting experience to create a cooking show, through this method of filmmaking I was able to experience what the celebrity chefs on Food Network do except on a much smaller scale. Given all that I have learned and experienced, I very well believe that I completed 43 hours of individual work.

Evidence of some of our planning and procedure can be found in the document linked above. Here are some visuals (Many more visuals will be found in our actual cooking show):

   

APPLIED

How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this.

During this time, I was able to experience and experiment into different methods and styles of cooking. Recipes began to take a bigger picture in my journey; for example, overtime I was able to personalize my cheesecake recipe as time went on, I got to see what worked for me and what I wanted in a recipe. Shopping for ingredients became a more common event in which I was able to learn more and I can now more easily shop for ingredients. The most significant thing I gained through independent component was experience, I now feel much more comfortable and capable in the kitchen.