Hello, friends! You guys had a bunch of great follow-up questions to my first Q&A post, so here’s round two. Feel free to leave more in the comments, or email me if you’d like!

How was the application process?

The application process for NGI is actually pretty easy. You need to be a high school graduate, and you need to fill out an application and write a few essays describing your experiences with food and why you’d like to attend the school. Prior experience is not necessary, but a serious interest in health or food is. While I’m not sure that they take every single applicant, I do think that almost everyone gets a spot. However, I have heard that classes fill up quickly, so it’s a good idea to get your application in a few months ahead of your desired program start date.

Did any of your classmates have gluten allergies? If so, how is the process different for them?

No students in my CTP were gluten intolerant, but I know some students in other classes were and it’s not an issue. Actually, several instructors are GF. Obviously, there are some foods you won’t be able to try, but for the most part I’d say that the dishes we made were gluten-free. Though I didn’t have experience with a GF classmate, I’d assume that those CTPs are just a little more cautious about cross-contamination, as well.

What is the population at NGI like? Genders, hometown, age, experience, etc?

It varies from class to class! Overall, I’d say the average student is female, in her 20s or 30s, and from the US. There are definitely more women than men, but our class of 13 had 2 men. I was one of the youngest at 21, and the oldest had several children around my age, but most people were in the 25-40 age range. Most of the students were from NYC or the Northeast, but there were also students from the midwest and west coast.

What are you doing post-grad? What comes next?

Welllllll….I guess it’s time I spilled the beans on my little secret. Currently, I’m in the San Francisco Bay area for my culinary externship! I left at the buttcrack of dawn (literally, my flight departed at 6 am…which meant a 3 am wakeup call) on Saturday morning, and will be starting on Wednesday. I’ve got some other plans in the works for my time out here too, and where I’ll end up following these next few weeks depends on a few factors. Time will tell

Hard to believe that 4.5 months later, it’s all over.

Friday night, my parents and I attended my graduation ceremony at the Natural Gourmet Institute. It was an ayurvedic-themed meal, coordinated entirely by Chef Rich LaMarita, who had been the supervisor for both our CTP group dinners.

The menu for your graduation dinner is kind of the luck of the draw, but we all felt it was very lucky and appropriate that Chef Rich make ours. He put up with all our shenanigans during the planning process, after all!

Before dinner, the little “graduation ceremony” took place. Each member of our class was called to the front to give a little speech and pose for pictures with the founder, president and director of education.

(Note to self: oversized, horizontally striped shirts are super comfy and cute in person, but photograph horribly.)

Then, the meal began! The appetizer was a delicious mushroom rasam, or soup, served alongside a baked mini-samosa with cauliflower-pea filling, tamarind chutney and pickled cucumber & onion.

Can you believe that I adored the soup? It was a mixture of crimini, oyster and shiitake mushrooms with tomato and spices, and you couldn’t detect the mushroom flavor at all. It was so good that I even declared my obsession to the room during the chef Q&A at the end of the meal. Watch out, world, I’m a big girl now. I eat my mushroom soup.

The entrée was a millet-squash kofta in a tomato curry, sided by sautéed green beans with coconut & urad dahl and Bengali-style braised greens.

The millet-squash kofta were warm, comforting and almost doughy; the slightly spicy sauce really complemented them, as well. I think the green beans were my favorite part of the entrée plate, though- the shredded toasted coconut mixed with the savory spices was unexpected and delicious, especially with the light crunch of the beans.

And finally, dessert: a fresh mango and brown basmati rice pudding parfait, with cardamom syrup and roasted pistachio.

I wasn’t expecting to like this too much, but I ended up really enjoying the sweet pureed mango alongside the chewy texture of the brown rice. The cardamom syrup kept everything from being dry, so definitely felt more like a parfait than a glass of straight rice and mango.

After dinner, we congregated for a group tequila shot. Bottoms up!

I think we all bitched about the program at some point or another, but in the end I’m pretty sure it was a positive experience for everyone. One of my classmates mentioned in her speech that she hadn’t expected to make lifelong friends during the program, but our CTP was really incredible and I’m glad to count these people as my friends. I’ll miss them!

Last night, the members of my CTP met up at one of our classmates’ apartments for one last shebang before graduation this evening. We’ve been a pretty rowdy, close-knit group most of the time, so somehow simply saying farewell at a school dinner didn’t seem like enough.

There were dance parties, plentiful profanities and way too much cake. I must say that while I’m glad to be done with Natural Gourmet and with school in general, I’m really going to miss these people. It’s the first time I’ve developed real friendships with people outside of my age group and experiences. They’re pretty awesome.

This is for you, unicorn Sarah.