The Diary of a Schizophrenic

Culinary Arts

During high school I went to this vocational program for two years and earned the knowledge equivalent of an associates degree in Culinary Arts. The program itself was pretty fun, but at times it was rather difficult to handle. For a long time I would spend a little extra time looking over recipes and studying our info packets, some of which I still have.

 Looking back on it I handled the class very well considering all of my "gifts".  When I get stressed I tend to have a bit of a "vision bloom". This still happens, but only slightly and with high amounts of stress. Sometimes I would hear students calling my name or a timer that isn't there, or even Chef calling for me in his classic sing-song way. He always sang my name "Maaargarettaaaay" and it drove me crazy at times.

When working in a kitchen I tend to focus on keeping extra, extra, extra care to not make any dangerous mistakes. I was the slowest person to cut my vegetables and to prep my dishes, but I was also very precise. Since I was only there to learn how to cook basic dishes I wasn't as determined as the rest of my classmates to do well. I eventually got average scores for all my tests, including my serve safe test. I graduated with A's and B's and even worked in a professional kitchen for a time.

A note for the determined who have struggles with mental health: try not to work in a kitchen unless you have your stuff sorted to a point of knowing what to expect from your brain. I had a very hard time working in a kitchen because you can't work at your own pace. Everything is sped up to a very fast pace and it is hard for even a healthy person to withstand. Be careful with yourself when picking which battles you would like to fight and where you would like to fight them. Some of the best cooks I know struggle to make it because of the difficulties of the professional work environment.

My favorite part of having had training in a culinary classroom is that thanksgiving at my house is frickin' awesome. I love making pumpkin pie and... well... all of the food. I especially like to make my family recipe for zucchini bread. It is the best stuff you will ever eat, unless you are allergic of course. There is something about making your own recipes, or meals, from scratch that is just that much more satisfying. You don't have to worry about where it came from or what was put into it because you know that you made it and put lots of love and effort into it.

Baking and cooking is very therapeutic for me because it calms my mind and minimizes the hallucinations. I haven't baked for a while so this was before I had medical assistance. I had a bit of a hard time keeping my head while cooking, not baking, before I was able to get help and now I am able to actually enjoy cooking more than I did before.

Don't be afraid to try something new. The only thing you have to lose is a few ingredients, but you can only gain knowledge of how to do and not to do something. I started off by teaching myself how to cook, and now after training,  I have been able to hone my craft. All crafts and skills take time to hone, and there is always a way to improve. I find it very fun to learn and expand the mind. Expand your horizons so you can flourish and blossom into a magnificent garden of information.