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Language:
English
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Published:
2022-03-12
Updated:
2022-12-26
Words:
14,052
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7/?
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needs salt

Summary:

The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is one of the most prestigious culinary schools in the entire country. Every year thousands of prospective chefs apply with only a handful chosen to attend. There is a long history of friendly fire between the Baking and Pastry students and the Culinary students, each specialty attracting specific personality types that don't always see eye-to-eye. While the bakers thrive off of order and precision, the Hotsiders lean more towards gut feelings and controlled chaos. Never has this been more apparent than between Lukas Patterson and Julianna Molina.

or

a self-indulgent college AU written entirely for my own entertainment

Notes:

I'll be completely honest this fic has almost no plot and is basically just me reliving my college culinary school days and taking advantage of the fact that I can unabashedly throw in tons of culinary school slang that I almost never use in my day-to-day life anymore. I have all of three chapters written and I make no promises that it will ever be finished or posted in it's entirety. TBH I personally feel like that makes the fic more fun and it's less stress on me to write it all. There's a good chance if I do end up posting more than the first couple of chapters that the storyline won't be super linear, more like small slice-of-life snapshots.

ANYWAY, I hope you all enjoy the absolutely unnecessary niche shit I put in here. All named locations are real and Google-able. Some chefs are also real and Google-able though not all of them are still at the CIA. Hopefully this index is helpful for most of the culinary terms but if I missed something lmk and I'm happy to add more!

Chapter 1: Index

Chapter Text

mise - (pronounced mees) a verb, derived from the phrase “mise en place” which translates to “everything in its place”; is used to refer to preparing a recipe by pre-measuring and weighing all ingredients; also occasionally a noun, referring to the collection of ingredients prepared for a recipe

whites - a student chef’s uniform made up of pants, chef’s coat, neckerchief, kitchen shoes, a dish towel, apron, and toque that looks like this . all chef coats are embroidered with a student’s full name. students must wear full whites every time they are in the kitchens, but must remove aprons, dish towels, and toques when they leave the kitchen. whites (or business casual attire) must also be worn any time a student is on campus for any reason. students get 5 sets per year

toque - (pronounced toke) a tall white hat worn by all chefs while in the kitchen. students get 10 per year

externship - an 18 week period of time when students must leave the school to work in their field of study, similar to an internship but usually paid and not set up by the school

TK - teaching kitchen, technically used to refer to the entire kitchen including the Bakeshop and family tables in the middle, but mostly used when talking about the hot side

Hotsiders - culinary students, referred to as such because they work on the “hot side” of the kitchen

BP - baking and pastry, typically used to refer to students i.e. BPers (also occasionally called “cold side”)

Winos or Wines - students that are studying only the Wine Program in preparation for becoming Sommeliers

Crush - the time when vineyards harvest their grapes and begin the winemaking process, referred to as such because of the smell caused by the crushing of grapes

“Yes Chef” - the proper response when being told to do something by a Chef Instructor

“Behind”, “Sharp”, “Hot”, “Corner” - common general movement warnings when working in a crowded kitchen, used to avoid running into or injuring someone

“Heard Chef” - sometimes shortened to “heard”, the proper response to a warning or critique from a Chef Instructor; also sometimes used to respond to general movement warnings

“Needs salt” - a common critique from Chef Instructors, also sometimes used as an insult by students