"Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself."
-unknown
My life consists of four subway stops, luckily all on the same line. Now that I've started my internship at Food Arts Magazine, my schedule is a bit chaotic. Monday through Friday I arrive to my internship at M. Shanken, also home to Cigar Aficionado, Wine Spectator, Impact, and Market Watch. I spend around six hours acting as a editorial assistant. So far the job consists of fact checking stories, some copy editing, and running errands around the building. After interning, I either go straight to school in SoHo or directly to work in Midtown East. My day starts at 8 a.m. and usually ends around midnight. I'm exhausted by the end of the day, but I'm enjoying the productivity. This is exactly the kind of schedule I envisioned.
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One of the main reasons I came to New York City was for the editorial opportunities. Many of the country's publishing company headquarters are in Manhattan. I knew culinary school would familiarize me with the industry and increase my overall knowledge of the culinary arts. As a new intern, I'm realizing my thinking was absolutely correct. In order to fact check stories and recipes, you have to be able to step inside the writer's head. You have to double check everything and you have to consider each word and its use. The copy editor for Food Arts, as well as several other staff members, are FCI graduates, and their desks are piled high with cookbooks and reference materials. I can tell they're always increasing their culinary knowledge and learning everyday, which totally excites me.
There's a certain comfort I get when surrounded by cookbooks. I really love them. I wish I could spend hours at the FCI library, and luckily the cookbook library at Food Arts is pretty impressive too. I spent one of my breaks last week researching Polynesian food for my next level at school. In level 4 part of the curriculum is organizing buffets with themes. Ever since my first trip to Maui I've been very interested in island cuisine, so I submitted several recipes to Chef last week that reflect Polynesian concepts. I love that I can pick a dish or culture, and within minutes I can find several researched books with information. It's so awesome. One day I hope to house an impressive library.
