Comfortably Culinary

what a great way to end chirstmas

2008-12-26T03:22:00.002-06:00

With a Hamster on a piano

Hamster On A Piano

My Birthday

2008-11-30T20:51:00.000-06:00

So i turned 26 on the 28th of november, here are a few (and by that i mean a lot) of vids, shot by my roomie

There were a lot more vids, but we were all really drunk and talking all kinds of nonsense so i figured, i'd just leave them out :D thanks to everyone who showed up for my b-day and to Danny for my birthday cake, so beautiful *tear*

this is just too freakin awesome

2008-11-07T21:34:00.001-06:00

cat n box

my adventure with ike

2008-10-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

So i evacuated to east texas and i get called back into work the next day, i had to wake up at 3 am to make it to Texas City at 9am to catch a bus to the garden, so i made a vid .. slightly delusional

this is 5 days later ... i think ... i know it was sunday ...

random day at work

another day in my hotel

driving down the seawall

high tides and good byes

2008-09-11T11:21:00.000-05:00

forgot to zom the cam back out at the end, lol :D

P90X week 2 update

2008-09-05T14:08:00.000-05:00

BRING IT!!

2008-08-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

Started my P90X workout today!

Starting my journey through P90X

2008-08-21T13:54:00.000-05:00

Its been a while

2008-08-05T19:50:00.001-05:00

I know its been a while but i've been kinda lazy and busy BUT heres a vid from today that talks about the tropical storm that almost hit

And as you can see, we're all ok, all we had were a few heavy showers and strong winds, but nothing serious :D

chaine des rotisseurs

2008-08-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Here are a few vids from the chaine des rotisseurs party at the garden, even thouhg we were pretty freakin crazy busy, the party went up to 200 people, i managed to get a couple of vids in! :D

Crazy Fruit

2008-07-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

For Jessica

2008-06-29T23:17:00.000-05:00

a few words to someone in my life who's very special

my first 100% Tempranillo

2008-06-27T21:50:00.000-05:00

Crazy Kitchen Numbers and something from the heart

2008-06-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

I decided to shoot a quick vid of some of the crazy numbers i had to deal with today

and here's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately

Mozilla Firefox 3

2008-06-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

www.spreadfirefox.com

My roommates Birthday

2008-06-15T21:32:00.001-05:00

here are some vids i took while at the bar with Alan and friends. enjoy :)

"ALAN YOU GOTTA HIT THAT SHIT!!" ~Eric C.

"Hell yeah!" "Woo!"

welp, hope you enjoyed seeing the documentary of my roommate Alan's birthday, see ya around :D
by the way, he did have a killer hang over :O

Fruit 101

2008-06-05T20:08:00.001-05:00

Ever find yourself confused about pineapple honeydew or cantaloupe? probably not, but i was bored at work and decided to give some basic knowledge to you guys :D have fun

(notice how I almost forgot the name of the cantaloupe)

A day in the kitchen with me ... kinda

2008-05-31T18:51:00.000-05:00

so i figured its about time for me to post something culinary related, and since we had to do a bunch of special things for the grand opening of Moody Gardens new golf course, i had the chance to get a little bit or recording time in even though we were insanity busy. so here goes hope you enjoy :D

so a couple of hours later find out we need to make a palm tree for this event, well the way we do this is by cutting and stacking pineapples so that they kind of look like the body of a palm tree, then i actually go out and cut down some palm leaves. So this is me driving around moody gardens and destroying hotel property in the name of culinary (by the way, my chef hat makes my hair go crazy, so please excuse the excessive hair crazyness)

unfortunately we were so busy i didnt get a chance to shoot the palm tree, sorry! maybe next time :D

Galvestons Water

2008-05-27T15:00:00.001-05:00

I was talking to an old friend of mine at 2 am and something we talked about inspired me to take a quick video of the water while driving on the seawall, i was talking but you cant really hear me because of the wind, all i said was "this is Galvestons brown water ... on a good day"

why people like to come to this beach, i'll never know

this made me smile

2008-05-26T14:40:00.001-05:00

its the new iphone killer :O

A very slow day at work

2008-05-25T15:42:00.000-05:00

Stuck at the hotel Sunday morning and afternoon with nothing to do, so i decided it was time for a trip to the roof :)

and a few hours later

First vlog

2008-05-23T23:19:00.000-05:00

here it is :) i was a little (very) sleepy when i made this, but i felt like it needed to be done tonight. enjoy :)

5 years and counting

2008-05-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

I don't really have anything scripted for this post, I'm just gonna shoot from the hip and the heart ;) so here goes. You know had you told me 6 years ago i would be doing what I'm doing now, and that i would travel to NY to further my education. i would have thought you were mental. I had been really banking on becoming some kind of inter networking administrator and sitting behind a desk taking it easy. But when i think back on it now, I'd say fuck that. being a chef is one the the hardest and most challenging (mentally, physically, and emotionally) things I've ever dreamed of doing but at the same time it has been the most fulfilling and rewarding experience i could ever hope to have.

It makes me think back to when i first decided to go into culinary school. I can remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I had just finished cooking lunch for my friends and I when Eliot (an old friend of mine) said to me "Man Johnny, you're good at this ... really good, you should go to culinary school" so really without even thinking I changed my major to culinary arts. I had such fun in that class. The instructor chef was named Cheryl Lewis she was a crazy Jewish woman, but she really taught me about the love and passion that going being cooking as well as laying some awesome fundamentals on me. I also made some really good friends in that class, one of which actually started her own business with her husband which is pretty awesome. if you're even in Galveston, TX you should check out a cafe named Speculous, it great, anyway.

things really didn't pick up for me until i started working at The Moody Gardens Hotel. never before had i seen such volumes and volumes of work being done for hundreds even thousands of people. my first year there i really was trying to find a place to fit in. I eventually made my way into the Garde Manger. Man talk about putting my patience to the test, when i first moved in there it was all about training my knife skills, that's IT for 6 months. All i did was cut veggies, peel fruit, and cut fruit. I use to hate it, but little did i realize how much it was improving my knife skills and how much i would eventually need that. years go by and I've become the assistant to the head Garde Manger of the hotel. and life was awesome.

Then one day i get a call from The Culinary Institute of America asking ME of all people if i wanted to go to their school. they offered to pay for pretty much everything. i had a tough make to make there. Go to NY and experience this once in a lifetime thing or stay at home where i had my best friends, an awesome apt and job, and an awesome life. So i said fuck it, i decided to sacrifice all that for this one chance. There was another reason i had behind wanting to go to NY, but that story is for another time and place

That school was fucking amazing, i couldn't have asked for anything more expect maybe more money so i could continue going to that school. I decided to come back to Galveston because i missed everyone back home a lot. Moody Gardens took me back in with open arms and a pretty serious position.

Its been a long and difficult road but these first few years of what I think promises to be an excellent career is just the start for me.

To all the loved one and friends who helped me along the way, I love you guys, thank you so much for standing by me and my choices.

A few shout outs that i think are necessary.

Omar, Mike, Matt, and Stephen - you all are fucking awesome and have been there with me from the start. thank you so so much for the support and love.

Mom & Carlos - I love you Mom! Thank you for standing by me in all of my life choices and for just plain being the best mom ever. And you're OK too Carlos :)

The Moody Gardens Crew - "We run this shit!" It's all about the A crew son :D

Jessica - thanks for always being there for me when i needed a familiar voice in NY, you'll always have a special place in my heart, I love you :D

Rene - I know you'll never read this but you have been one of the heaviest culinary influences on me. You were so hard on me in the beginning and I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart. I know we use to fight a lot when i first started because we saw things so differently (and we still do) but its awesome that we finally understand each other. Thank you for all the lessons you've taught me.

everyone else who feels they should be named here - thank you for being awesome, much love :D

My First Time

2008-04-28T15:56:00.000-05:00

Hello Internetz! This is the first of hopfully many posts here. I guess I should tell you a little about myself and what I'm doing here. I'm Johnny a 25 year old Chef aspiring for greatness, I've been to a few different culinary schools (The Culinary Institute of America being the most well known of the bunch) and I've been doing the culinary thing for about 6 years now. Besides all of that I'm a guy that likes to speak his mind and I often do so without thinking first, and I figured this would be a perfect place for me to vent, talk about my findings on the internetz, and just have a little fun. I'm hoping to have some videos up soon. later