Asias (CULP-321, Chef Wille, Team 2, weekdays 1:00–8:30) · Intro to Gastronomy (APFS-150, Prof. Brodie Sorondo, Thu & Fri 10:50–12:25) · Fall 2026
You already cook at the level this class wants. Chef’s own words across eight days: very good color, good crumb, good shaping, good timing, good dicing, very good research on the gyeranjjim. Nine of the ten points you’ve lost came from things that happen outside the kitchen — readings not done, no notebook, no cards, not looking up the dish. Those are cheap to fix. Skill isn’t the problem. Arriving already knowing is.
Walk in prepared, then cook the way you already cook. Three moves, same every day:
From his page on Moodle: confidence in the kitchen, so you can work with assurance under any chef; and the habits he says go with success — timeliness, professionalism, critical thinking, teamwork, courage, compassion. He quotes Bruce Lee: a teacher is a guide, a pointer to the truth each student finds for himself. That’s what this page is for. It’s yours.
Every night, write tomorrow’s plan in three lines. It starts pre-filled so you can see the shape. Change it, cut it, make it yours. It saves on this phone.
Day 4 (68) was the yakitori day: no research, no notebook, no Moodle, wasted chicken. Day 6 (79) had a very good dish and lost points only on Moodle. Days 7 and 8 (89, 89) are the two best days of the block — dubu jorim “very nice version,” shrimp on sugarcane “very good texture.” The cooking is not the problem, and the prepared days prove it.
| Quiz | Score | Window |
|---|---|---|
| China | 19 / 20 | closed Sept 10 |
| Dim Sum & Chinese Ingredients | 10 / 10 | closed Sept 11 |
| Japan | 20 / 20 | closed Sept 15 |
| Korea | 10 / 10 | closed Sept 17 — taken 8:48 AM, 1 min 36 sec |
| Vietnam | – / 20 | Fri Sept 18 12:01 AM → Tue Sept 22 1:29 PM |
| Thailand | – / 10 | Wed Sept 23 12:01 AM → Thu Sept 24 1:29 PM |
| India | – / 10 | Thu Sept 24 12:01 AM → Fri Sept 25 1:29 PM |
When you do the readings, you score 95–100 on the quizzes. That's the pattern.
Sunday to Saturday, one row per week. Gray is fixed class time. Green is Asias work, purple is Gastronomy, amber is a quiz window or a commitment; a chip turns solid green when the items behind it are done. Tap a day to see it hour by hour.
Three days at a time, hour by hour. Tap a day in the month to jump the week here.
Asias runs 1:00–8:30 on weekdays; Gastronomy 10:50–12:25 Thursdays and Fridays. Monday Sept 21 is shown as a class day until Chef says otherwise. The dashed Saturday block opens only when Saturday morning is done.
Every class day with what’s due before it, your station, and every quiz window, on the date it happens. Tap a day to open its list.
| Week | Dates | Your station duty |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sept 8–11 | Sustainability Steward / Buffet (done) |
| 2 | Sept 14–18 | Food Steward |
| 3 | Sept 22–25 | Saniteur |
Team 2: Isaac Dell, Suriah Thompson, Christopher Shimp, and you. Sous chef rotates too — Suriah this week, Chris next week.
This job is why the Vietnam guide matters tonight: Pho Bo cooks overnight for Day 9, beef stock comes from the freezer, and Thailand's chicken has to marinate over the weekend. If those aren't pulled and planned, it's the Food Steward's miss.
Team 2 menu. Full recipes are in "Recipe Guide and Notes_Vietnam" on Moodle — transcribe yours onto cards and look up images of each dish.
Chef's notes, in short: sugar cane cut in half, not quartered; shrimp paste is sticky, wear a glove, form small pucks 1.5–2", steam on a sprayed perforated pan until firm, brush with oil and grill just before service, serve each in a lettuce cup. Scallion oil can be blended with salt and strained for color. Mango goes through the julienne setting on the mandoline. Fish is tai snapper in 3 oz pieces; oil the grill well because the marinade sticks; only cook halfway on the grill about an hour before service and finish in a pan; serve over vermicelli with lots of dill and roasted peanuts. Press the tofu ~30 min and dust with cornstarch before pan-frying. Team 2 also owns rice on Day 8 (jasmine, 8 cups in the rice cooker, with Team 3) and helps with Pho Bo: tendons in, beef round pulled and cooled before leaving Day 8, sliced paper-thin on the slicer Day 9.
Chef's notes, in short: boneless skinless thigh, ¾" pieces, for the soup and for the yellow curry. Beef salad goes into individual lettuce cups, topped with dry-toasted rice; grill the steak to medium-rare and rest well before slicing — it doesn't need to be hot at service. Green beans stir-fried as close to service as possible. Pork shoulder for the noodle stir-fry. Curries cook in woks on the stovetop; crack the coconut cream so the fat separates. Team 2 owns jasmine rice on Day 10.
Chef's notes, in short: poona batter sits overnight in the pastry proof box under cheesecloth only. Make the pancakes small, flash to warm, garnish just before service. Prawns keep their tails; marinate early; roast in the tandoor, then flash in the oven before service. Toor lentils are split yellow pigeon peas — start with half the water. The coconut scraper on the cart needs a chef demo and safety gear before you touch it. Chapati is oiled and rolled like the Chinese scallion bread, cooked on the griddle, stacked under a dry towel, Maldon salt before cooking, served in bread baskets. Hand some chapati dough to Team 4 for their biryani. Team 2 owns basmati on Day 13.
Every dish each team makes, on the day it's made. Your team is highlighted. The recipes themselves stay on Moodle (they're CIA's), one tap away; the card you write from them is the prep Chef grades. Amber tags mark things that must start the day before.
Recipe Guide & Notes_India (Moodle PDF) → · Supplemental recipes (Butter Chicken, Kalbi, Kimchi) →
One box per Team 2 recipe. Check it when the card is written. These count toward the progress bar.
Earlier countries: Korea guide (Topic 4) → · Japan (Topic 3) → · Dim Sum (Topic 2) → · China (Topic 1) →
Thursdays and Fridays, 10:50–12:25, Greystone BR3 · Sept 17 – Oct 23 · 1.5 credits. Runs underneath Asias, all of Mediterranean, and the first week of Garde Manger.
Read it before class, with a pen. There's no cooking to carry this grade. Every point comes from reading quizzes, annotations, and a final — all of which are the reading. The instructor puts a time estimate on every article. Believe the estimate, schedule it, and annotate as you go: the annotations are graded, so reading and homework are the same act.
| Piece | Points |
|---|---|
| Reading quizzes 1–8 | 10 each → 100 |
| Final exam, in class | 100 |
| Engagement credits (reading responses, paper, optional reflections) | A needs 100+, B 85, C 70, D 60 |
| Participation | consistent in class; absences count |
| Presentation | meets expectations for B/C; exceeds for A |
The rule that matters: the letter grade requires every column at that level. Quiz average 80–89.9 and 85 engagement credits and regular participation and no more than 2 absences = B. Miss one column and the grade is whatever that column earns. Three absences is an F regardless of everything else. Plus/minus comes from annotations, discussion, turning things in on time, and answering the professor's emails.
From the syllabus (Google Doc linked in Getting Started). Reading quiz 1 covers the syllabus itself.
Amber Brodie Sorondo · a_brodie@culinary.edu
Office hours: Tue–Fri 9:30–10:30 AM and 1:00–1:30 PM in person (3rd floor); Mondays virtual by appointment.
Fastest: before or after class — she's early and stays until the last student leaves. Faster: Teams chat, goes to her phone. Fast: email, answered within 24 hours on weekdays, not after 5 PM or weekends.
She says: come by with a draft, a question, or nothing at all. She usually has snacks.
Why by Wednesday: on Thursday and Friday the morning is short (class at 10:50), the gap before the kitchen is fifty minutes, and the evening comes after eight hours on your feet. The reading can't live in any of those. It lives earlier in the week.
Units 3 (Culture & Geography) and 4 (Taste, the Senses & Terroir) are now posted on Moodle: two readings each, a reading response due before class Thu Sept 24 and Fri Sept 25, and optional podcasts for extra engagement credit. Key terms for 3 and 4 aren't posted yet — check the top of each unit on Moodle before you read. Units 5–10 and the final are hidden. I'll add them as they appear.
Every study question and key term from Chef's homework sheets, in one place. Answer them in your notebook while you do the Moodle readings, then click "Mark as done" on the Homework/Study Guide item. Your notes are allowed on the final.
Moodle before class, every day. Chef has written it in your feedback twice (Day 4 and Day 6): you lose professionalism points every day you show up without having done the readings. It costs zero cooking skill, only 30–45 minutes the night before. Chef can see your Moodle progress numbers.
Michael Wille, Associate Professor
Email (preferred): m_wille@culinary.edu · Phone (707) 967-2432
Office hours Mon–Thu about 1:00–1:30 pm, by appointment; he's in the kitchen setting up from 1:00. He answers email within 24 business hours. Teams is slower.
| Piece | Points | Weight | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily performance | 100 × 13 = 1,300 | 60% | Chef's daily sheet scores Timeline, Sanitation, Knowledge (5), Professionalism (5), Skills (10), Teamwork, plus notes |
| Introduction forum | 100 | 30% | Done (90) |
| Quizzes (7) | 100 | Online, individual, each opens 12:01 AM and closes 1:29 PM | |
| Written final | 100 | 10% | In class Fri Sept 25. Open notes — anything in your notebook. |
Daily grades are 60% of the course. Study guides carry no points but Chef sees whether they're marked done, and the quizzes and final are built from them.
A 24-hour extension is possible only if you email Chef before the due date and he opens it manually in Moodle — and even then it's graded at 50%. If you're going to miss a quiz window, email him before it closes.
Topic 8, "Final Project – Lucky 88," exists but isn't visible to students yet. Worth asking Chef in class what it is and when it opens.
One entry per class day, newest first: what was due before that class, what was actually done and when, and what got pushed. Timing comes from Moodle snapshots, so it only knows what a snapshot saw. Nothing here is a judgment — it’s a record, so patterns can be seen.
on time a snapshot saw it done before that class started. late a snapshot before class saw it open; a later one saw it done. open still not done on Moodle. before tracking done, but no snapshot early enough to know when. open · closes in 2 days a hard window — quiz or due time — inside 72 hours; the item reads in red. open · past due its class already happened; it can still be marked done, and each day it sits costs professionalism points; the item reads in orange.
A 2.0 cumulative GPA by the end of this semester. That's the Academic Standards Committee's condition (letter of Aug 21), and Ms. Amato confirmed it is cumulative — every semester so far counts. Meet it and the dismissal is behind you. Miss it and there is no second appeal.
What that takes this fall, in points: you enter at 1.84 cumulative. To lift the whole record to 2.0 with 16.5 new credits, this semester has to come in at a C+ in every course — about 77% and up. That is the ground. A C (70s) in every course does not clear it. C+ everywhere clears it by nine thousandths of a point, which means one rough block anywhere, and it's gone.
Where we're aiming: B− or better in every course — 80% and up. At B− across the board you finish above 2.1 cumulative with room to absorb one bad course. That's the cushion. It's not a stretch goal; it's the plan.
Why 80 costs no more than 77. Look at the Grade tab: your 85–88 days were not days you worked harder — they were days you walked in having done the reading. The difference between a 77 day and an 86 day is 45 minutes the night before and being at your station at 1:30. Do that and you don't aim for 80; you pass through it. Asias is at 85% right now doing exactly that.
| Course % | Letter | GPA pts | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 93–100 | A | 4.0 | prepared every day |
| 90–92.9 | A− | 3.67 | |
| 87–89.9 | B+ | 3.33 | where the prepared days land |
| 83–86.9 | B | 3.0 | Asias is here now |
| 80–82.9 | B− | 2.67 | the target, every course |
| 77–79.9 | C+ | 2.33 | the ground — no room below |
| 73–76.9 | C | 2.0 | below what the semester needs |
| 70–72.9 | C− | 1.67 | below |
| 65–69.9 | D | 1.0 | below |
| below 65 | F | 0 | below |
CIA scale: A 90+, B 80+, C 70+, D 65+, F under 65 (Greystone grading guidelines and the Gastronomy syllabus); the point values reproduce all three of CJ’s past semester GPAs exactly. Cutoffs inside each band are the conventional ones; the registrar’s posted letter is what counts at the end. The CIA does not award A+, D+, or D−, and it truncates the GPA rather than rounding. 16.5 credits this semester: five kitchen courses at 3 credits and Gastronomy at 1.5.
Courses run one at a time, so there are six readings instead of one December surprise. After each block, the running points needed to still be on pace — a C+ each time keeps you exactly on it; a B− each time builds the cushion.
| Block ends | Course | Cr | Running pts to stay on pace | At B− or better |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | Cuisines & Cultures of Asia | 3 | 6.91 | 8.0+ |
| Oct 16 | Mediterranean | 3 | 13.82 | 16.0+ |
| Oct 23 | Intro to Gastronomy | 1.5 | 17.28 | 20.0+ |
| Nov 6 | Garde Manger | 3 | 24.19 | 28.0+ |
| Nov 24 | Baking & Pastry | 3 | 31.10 | 36.0+ |
| Dec 18 | Cuisines & Cultures of the Americas | 3 | 38.01 | 44.1+ |
Points = credits × grade points. If a block comes in low, the shortfall spreads over what’s left — recoverable early, brutal late. September 25 is the first real reading.
| Course | Dates | Instructor | Cr. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuisines & Cultures of Asia (CULP-321) | Sept 8 – 25, M–F 1:00–8:30 | Chef Wille | 3 |
| Intro to Gastronomy (APFS-150) | Sept 17 – Oct 23, Thu & Fri 10:50–12:25 | Prof. Brodie Sorondo | 1.5 |
| Cuisines of the Mediterranean (CULP-311) | Sept 28 – Oct 16, M–F 2:00–8:30 | Chef Canales | 3 |
| Garde Manger (CULP-225) | Oct 19 – Nov 6, M–F 2:00–8:30 | Chef DaFonseca | 3 |
| Baking & Pastry Skill Development (BAKE-241) | Nov 9 – 24, M–F 2:00–8:30 + Sat Nov 21 | Chef Isaac | 3 |
| Cuisines & Cultures of the Americas (CULP-301) | Dec 1 – 18, M–F 2:00–8:30 | Chef DaFonseca | 3 |
Gastronomy runs underneath Asias, all of Mediterranean, and the first week of Garde Manger. Thursdays and Fridays are two-class days through Oct 23.
These are your words from the appeal letter. Each one has a person and a date. None is done yet; that's the list, not a verdict.
Jodi Amato, Director of Academic Support Services — Jodi.Amato@culinary.edu · 845-905-4631. East Coast (Hyde Park), three hours ahead — meetings by phone or Zoom. Probation contract, techniques, Accessibility Services.
Jenny Woltz, Career & Academic Advisor — Jenny.Woltz@culinary.edu. Registration and the standing weekly meeting.
Carolyn Tragni, Senior Dean — Carolyn.Tragni@culinary.edu · 845-451-1615. Questions about the decision itself.
The weekly Moodle check is the one your letter asked for a person on. Dad runs it with the dashboard every class day; the Friday report goes to your advisor so the school sees the same numbers you do.