Student Skills

Our team got a gold in the student skills category. Here is our gold medal four course meal

My 6 platted desserts

Only got a bronze this year, I better try harder next year to earn a gold medal. Can't win if you don't try.

Team Pentagon!

This year at the 36th. Annual Culinary Competition team Pentagon takes Gold! We are a joint service (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) culinary team. With a little budget and practicing on our own time we pull off winning a team gold medal. We took home over 55 medals, more then any other team. It was the first time the Pentagon team has won in the culinary competition. We also earn a team trophy, no word yet where our trophy will be placed.

Pastry Live competition

Here I am in my live competition, I had hour and half to make a dessert for four people.I end up winning a Gold Medal. My dessert (from bottom to the top) chocolate brownie, vanilla custard, chocolate board, white chocolate mouse, chocolate board. What you don't see I added a berry compote, with a blueberry sorbet.

Coca-Cola’s Secret Recipe Finally Revealed

The secret recipe of Coke has been hidden and locked down for 125 years. But apparently, not anymore. This American Life says they've found the ingredients that make up the delicious bubbly cola and have revealed it to our delight.

The story starts with John Pemberton, a Civil War veteran who's credited with inventing Coca-Cola. His original recipe was written down in a recipe book of various ointments and medicines that was passed down from generation to generation.

A photograph of that recipe, from that very recipe book, was taken in the Feb. 18, 1979, edition of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and only recently came to light when Ira Glass from This American Life stumbled upon it. Glass tracked down other people who claimed to have discovered the recipe as well and though they didn't match up exactly, they were so strikingly similar that Glass concluded that this recipe was the original. Here it is: 

The recipe:
Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)
Water: 2.5 gal
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color

The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup):
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander: 5 drops
Neroli: 10 drops
Cinnamon: 10 drops

Coke has become infamous in guarding their secret recipe with tales of the recipe being under 24 hour surveillance, Coca-Cola executives only knowing half the formula or that the two people who know the recipe can never fly together. It's added to the allure of Coke, for sure, but there's also some truth to the that. When Asa Candler, an early Coke President, bought the original formula from Pemberton in 1887, he was so paranoid about people stealing the recipe that he ordered that the recipe could never be written down again. He also removed all labels from the ingredient bottles and went through company mail to see if anyone was snitching.
Truth be told though, it's impossible to fully replicate Coke's recipe because there's one ingredient only Coca-Cola can get: fluid extract of coca (which is coca leaves stripped of cocaine). Only one factory can process those leaves and only Coca-Cola has a special deal with the DEA that allows them to use it. So even if the secret is out, we're still missing the Coke in our Cola. [This American life via Time]