Monday, March 29, 2010

Got a Scholrship !

Hey everyone, so on March 20th 2010 I went to the Taiwanese Merchants Association of Toronto's Gala dinner to receive a scholarship. At first it was kinda weird to be there but after meeting the other receivers the night turned out to be pretty good. In terms of food it wasn't too impressive, chicken was a bit over so was the salmon, the mushroom soup I just don't have any words for it. Oh well at least the company was good! A few days after the gala I get this phone call from the a Chinese newspaper World Journal and it was the lady who was taking our pictures that night. She did a quick phone interview with me about how I came to be in Culinary school.


22歲的林書緯是家中唯一的男孩子,上有兩個姐姐,按照常理他會被嬌慣得不會做家務事。然而他卻放棄讀了一年的大學,去追求從小就有的夢想——成為一名優秀的廚師,並且還將廚藝一路發揮到了聯邦總理哈珀的家宴上。

3歲從台灣來加拿大的林書緯,從小就喜歡看爸爸媽媽煮飯,夢想將來自己在大輪船上、大飯店裡揮舞鍋鏟的快樂。他約12歲時開始在佛光山組織的活動中幫助擦桌子,再大一些,他就可以做些複雜的工作︰切菜、炸豆腐,忙得不亦樂乎。

高中畢業後,林書緯進入懷雅遜(Ryerson)大學信息技術專業學習,對信息技術完全沒興趣的林書緯讀得很不開心。一年後,當他宣布退學去學廚師的時候,遭到媽媽的反對,在他的堅持和舅舅幫忙勸說下,媽媽終於同意他去追求一直以來的夢。

林書緯於是進入渥太華餐飲藝術學院學習法國餐。每堂課上,先看老師演示四道菜,之後去廚房按照老師教的程序,親自動手做一道。剛開始的時候做出來的味道總是怪怪的,現在他自信地說,我做菜的方法和味道幾乎可以與老師一模一樣了。林書緯所參與的義務工作,幾乎都與食物有關,除了在佛堂幫廚外,還參與青年動力小組(Power Unit)每年夏天舉辦的多倫多夜市,策畫其中的美食大賽,並幫助其他年輕人制定開辦美食攤位的商業計畫;到庇護所為無家可歸者分發食物;另外還為小的慈善團體募捐等。

當林書緯毫不經意地說出去總理的家宴上幫廚時,讓記者大吃一驚︰他學習法國餐僅僅六個月啊!林書緯說,因為老師與總理的御用廚師很熟。哈珀總理有三名廚師,有時他在家中招待國會成員或者傳媒朋友時,會舉辦300人到400人的宴會。每當家廚忙不過來,就會到渥太華餐飲藝術學院搬救兵,林書緯於是自告奮勇。第一次去時十分緊張,渾身冒汗,連話都不敢多說,只是乖乖地坐在一邊,讓他幹什麼才敢動一動。去過三、四次後漸漸放鬆了,現在他與總理的廚師也成為了好朋友,總理在宴會後還與他們合影,並對他們的廚藝表示滿意。他說最遺憾的是,沒有趕上為美國總統歐巴馬獻藝。

談起將來的計畫,林書緯說,他還想學習西餐和義大利餐,然後到船上、飯店裡去工作,十幾年後開個自己的餐廳。


-Taken from World Journal epaper


世界新聞網-多倫多 <-- Orignal Epaper article


I know its in Chinese but I don't know how to translate it haha, I had someone read it to me.

Since I'm now going into Superior Cuisine, I will try to recap most of what happened during Intermediate in the next few days. I'll try to keep each post as small as possible or just do one long post about Intermediate Cuisine.