Newport Harbor Field Hockey Alum and 2010-2011 JV Coach, Sasha Grumman, sent us an update on how she is doing in culinary school. Thanks Sash!

Sasha spent time in New York City earlier this year: “NYC is fun/exhausting…as you can imagine. School is going well. Pretty long days: 9:30 – 3:30 in the kitchen every day and then Italian language class for 2 hours almost every day. An example of a full course that we will do in a day is a salad with pancetta dressing and a poached egg, then potato gnocchi with a sage sauce, and then a roasted rack of lamb and artichokes. Everything is timed and they watch your every move, but it’s fun! Love the adrenaline rush. Italian is also going super well. Knowing Spanish has helped a lot. Overall, I am super happy with the experience and have been learning a lot. We’ve been able  to work with a wide range of ingredients; everything from octopus and cuttlefish to rabbits and quails. We’ve also broken down ducks and filleted all kinds of fish. While it’s fun here, I do miss you all and it’s always so great to hear from the field hockey family!”

Sasha is now in the second part of her program, which is in Italy: “Italy is absolutely amazing. So much more exciting than NYC, which I thought was impossible. The food is amazing, I’m meeting a lot of Italian students and speaking broken Italian and English. The school is beautiful and I have a great apartment! Things are going well!”

Sasha starts her internship next week at a restaurant called Da Caino in Tuscany. Good luck Sasha, keep in touch!