Natural Gourmet Institute

I wanted to post this after I saw an article on food coloring for Velvet cake. When I first thought of the luscious red cake, I thought, "Well of course I would use beets as a food colorant. Plus, beets, if cooked right, would add an exotic sweetness that food coloring lacks.

That got me thinking (yet again) about my future in the natural foods business.

I've been thinking about culinary school for quite some time now. I've loved working in the food service industry for the past 11 years. (On more than off since I was 15) I've always wanted to have my own restaurant. Sure the vision of it has changed over the years. I almost want to puke knowing that I wanted to own a/some McDonald's. Boy was I young and naive (or ignorant?). Since college, however, the vision has been the same. College town atmosphere. Counter service. Breakfast and lunch foods. Good coffee and tea. Healthy choices. It was only in the last year or so that I've been a bit more serious about the vegan/vegetarian fare. I still want to have lots of breakfast/brunch items (my specialty) including eggs. Would customers be satisfied with veggie sausage/bacon? Cuz I think that stuff is fantastic. I guess I'm saying that I don't want to limit the clientele to vegetarians only.

So on to culinary schools. I'd like to study some Culinary Management but I'd like to take some culinary arts courses. I did a simple Google search for "culinary schools vegetarian" and I came across the Natural Gourmet Institute. Their program seems to be exactly what I'm looking for on the Culinary Art side of things. Perhaps I can find another school in NYC that has a Culinary Management program that fits my needs. We'll see.