Introductory Letter to Chef S
From my brain
Chef S,
As far as {Placement Director} has informed me, I'm the only student who is interested in the externship opportunity through your contact(s) in Italy. I wanted to provide you with some info on myself, as well as ask a few questions. However, in drafting this email, I rambled on about my background for so long, you'd have probably called {PD} and asked why this guy emailed you a copy of War and Peace.
So, I'll try to get to the point.
Baking bread is the heart of who I am. I criticize the bread I eat at restaurants. I eagerly attempt a new recipe or method when I first read of it. If you walk into our house on a given night, you're going to smell flour and yeast in the air. My family loves it, and so do I. (OK, that thin layer of flour that seems to settle everywhere in the kitchen doesn't always make my wife happy...but she DOES like the bread at least.)
My fascination lies with "Old World", artisan breads...not that evil stuff found in the grocery stores. My father was straight off the boat from Sicily when he was in his teens during the mid 1960s. To have the opportunity to go Italy, and learn how they would have done things "back in the old country", is beyond thrilling to me.
One of the locations {PD} mentioned for the externship was a hotel with the potential for room and board provided. She also stated there were other locales. While any location in Italy would be an amazing experience, to be honest, something in the southern reaches would be most intriguing. There are still a few {versions of my last name} in the area of Messina in Sicily, and so the experience would only be richer for me the nearer I could get to the food-culture I was born into.
If I may ask then, where are the possible locations? Also (and this may be a question for {PD} & CCI), should the location of my externship not provide room and board, how would that be set up? As my focus is on bread baking specifically -- as opposed to more delicate pastry work or even line cooking -- is that still something that your contacts have available? Please don't get me wrong, I would love to obtain any cooking skills directly from a professional there, but baking is definitely my heart...and it's there I want to focus.
If you could provide the answers to a few of these questions, I would appreciate it. While I know you have a very busy schedule, if you would like to meet in person to discuss these things, please let me know and I will arrange to meet up with you at your convenience.
I thank you for your time Chef, and I look forward to the potential opportunities in the future.
Sincerely,
