Mark
Campus: Orland ParkProgram: Hospitality Management
From: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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It all began two years ago when I was driving myself to my mundane banking job. Now don’t get me wrong the job was okay, it just wasn’t for me. That day, traffic was terrible, I was miserable, and I thought there has to be more to life than this. I decided it was time for a change. So I left the banking industry (after working in it for eight years) and started my new adventure into the world of food. That’s how I got to the Bobby Mo.
Next on Real Life...
Want to see some crazy, mean chicks on skates hurting each other and have a great time in the process?
Then you've got to check out the Windy City Rollers. They are an all-girl roller derby league that kicks arse. I went to their season opener on April 23rd and I am addicted.
You're probably saying to yourself, "This has nothing to do with food"! But there is a connection here. The pastry chef that I work for is a Windy City Roller. She's Carnage Wilson and she plays for The Fury. I also had the opportunity to work in the kitchen with T-Bone StakeYa who plays for Hell's Belles. They're both very talented in the kitchen and in the derby ring.
Roller derby really isn't that hard to understand. However, I'm not going to try to explain it here. If you go to a match (or go to the Windy City Rollers link above) you can pick it up really quickly. Now if you are old enough (like myself) to remember it on T.V., I have to tell you that it isn't like that at all. This is a real sport with bruises, broken arms, and all.
I promise you after ten minutes (once you learn what's going on) you will get into it. At first, you could tell that the girls were all taking it easy on eachother, but by the end they were being knocked into walls and flying into chairs. It was crazy fun.
The best part is that tickets are pretty inexpensive. If you buy in advance you can get them for $15. The matches (they are usually double headers for inter league play) combined last a little over two hours. They do sell food and beer (have your ID ready), so you can get your fill of nachos and lite beer.
The next inter league match is Saturday May 19th. Highly Recommended!
To get tickets or learn more check out their website:
http://www.windycityrollers.com/
Kick some arse Carnage and T-Bone!
A SIDENOTE BEFORE WE START:
Let me start off by saying that blogging for Robert Morris (aka, the Bobby Mo) was not my idea. I was against it, at first. I don't know the first thing about blogging, let alone want to share my most personal thoughts with anonymous internet users around the world. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided this could be a cool thing. So I'm dedicating this blog to all things food related. I'll post my favorite recipes, reviews of restaurants I've gone to, and other food related topics here. At some point I'll post my e-mail address so if you have anything you'd like to discuss (food related), you can drop me a line. Here goes nothing...
The Adventure
The real reason this blog was set up was so that you can follow along in my big adventure to Italy. I found out in February that I am one of five people in the U.S. that won the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation/Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani Giacamo Bologna Scholarship (pretty long title). Basically, it's an all expense paid week trip to the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners in Costigliole d'Asti, Italy.
So each day that I am there I will learn something new about Italian cooking. (One day is cheese, one is olive oil, one is wine, etc.) I will be taking a lot of pictures and posting the stuff I learn to this blog so you can follow along.
The trip doesn't happen until the end of May. So in the meantime, I'll do what I said above and focus on all things food.
If you're interested in learning more about the ICIF or the Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani these are the links to their websites.