What I'm Studying This Semester and Why It Matters
What if graduate school weren’t only about a degree, but transforming your life intentionally? This fall, I’ll be starting my first semester at the Basque Culinary Center in Spain studying gastronomy. I completed enrollment today, and after reviewing my course schedule I noticed something more profound behind the scenes: healing, justice, creativity, and care. From sensory perceptions to ethics of business, this is what I’ll be learning…and why it’s transforming everything for me.
I did not decide to take this road randomly. Studying Gastronomy in Spain was not simply a matter of getting a master’s degree. It was a matter of beginning again, intentionally. It was a matter of building a life based in meaning, in caring, and in the sort of work that really does matter to me. Each of the courses I’m taking this semester belongs to that foundation. These are not simply requirements of the academy. They are anchors. They are instruments of healing, of growth, of long-term transformation. For me and, hopefully, for the people and places I shall belong to.
Culinary Research Methodology
This class will instruct me more than the technical aspects of how to write a literature review or how to do proper citation. It will instruct me in the fact that research need not be abstract or clinical. It can be embodied, personal, and humane. I’ll be learning how to do interviews, how to plan ethnographic fieldwork, and how to translate observation to understanding. But the thing that’s really sticking for me is the fact that storytelling and food studies can be compatible. The experiences I’ll encounter, the things I’ll witness, and feel, need not be compartmentalized from the work of academia. Research at its finest point is the act of asking questions with tender care. It’s the spirit of curiosity embedded in the fullness of context. It’s the act of finding ways to encompass complexity and report the truth.
Sensory Perception
This class will help me focus on getting back in tune with my own body. After years of disconnection (from stress, from survival, from the rest of it) I’m re-learning to pay attention. How does something taste on my tongue? What memory does a particular smell evoke? What textures feel comforting, or uncomfortable? There’s a sort of centering that occurs when you actually taste something, really and truly, without distraction. It’s more than a sensory exercise. It’s mindfulness. It’s recovering from trauma. It’s respectful of cultures. Especially in the Basque Country, where terroir and tradition are embedded in every bite, I’ll learn that sensory awareness is a form of respect for place, history, and self. This class will enable me to live more- with attention, with respect, and with body.
Design of Products and Services
This class is a roadmap to the kind of work I desire. We're not just creating menus, we're creating experiences, systems, rituals, and services. It's the act of working through how food can be a container of meaning, as opposed to consumption. I'm especially interested in the conversations surrounding design justice and feminist models of service. How does hospitality occur if it's based upon care, as opposed to convenience? How do we make spaces of food that are inclusive, ethical, and innovative? This class will give me the language to move values to action. It's persuading me, more than ever, that creative enterprises can be a force for good…as opposed to merely for financial return.
New Business Models of Hospitality and Catering
This class could not come at a more opportune time. The hospitality sector is changing, rapidly. And sometimes not for the good. We'll be looking at how to create sustainable, non-extractivist systems. I'll learn about cooperatives, joint ownership, and the shifting dynamics of the dining scene after COVID. But I'm struggling with harder questions, too. Who profits? Who gets to decide these new systems? What does equity even translate to in practice? This course will allow me to see more keenly and act more intentionally. I don’t want to be of the industry, I want to be of the re-making of it. I want to be of something more equitable, more community-focused, and more resilient.
Management of Culinary Projects
This is where it gets real. I’ve had ideas -events, spaces, community initiatives- all my life, but this class will show me how to make ideas tangible. We’ll learn how to write timelines, work budgets, organize teams, and actually make visions a reality. It will be practical, nuts-and-bolts, sometimes overwhelming, but it’s just what I need. I’ll transfer the lessons I learn to future initiatives like In My Place, and start to rough out concepts for community kitchens, shared workshops, and creative spaces based in food and care. This course is the scaffolding I’ve lacked and the infrastructure behind the vision.
Why It All Matters
All of the courses I’m in this semester are speaking to my values. They aren’t mere stepping stones to a degree, they’re challenges to be more of the person I’m meant to be. Food has meant more than sustenance to me. It’s memory, it’s connection, it’s survival, it’s justice. This semester feels like a harbinger of sorts. The point at which years of personal and professional exploration begin to flow together into something that makes sense. I’m not simply learning theory. I’m constructing a life.
