Learning Curve

Education.

It is daunting, to say the least, when you are actually thinking about it in terms of a future. I like to think of myself as an avid learner, however the public education system here in the US did a lovely job of destroying my faith in organized educational settings. I swore up and down out of high school I'd never go to college. I wasn't exactly right, I did a brief five months in art school before dropping out. And that really didn't help my opinion of the whole mess, either.

These days, though, I am coming around a bit more. I still hate what post-high school options have become, but I am willing to accept the inevitable fact that if I really want to make my life what I want it to be, I need to do something to back up my industry experience. I toyed with increasing my knowledge base four years ago, but four years ago I was also suffering from some major delusions of grandeur (I'll admit it, I was a presumptuous asshole). I never put in the effort I should have, and I wasted an incredible opportunity to learn from an incredible sommelier.

Now that I'm actually committing to learning, I have made a conscious decision to somewhat... take myself out of what I consider the real workforce. I am still working for the catering company, but that in itself is a very part time position. I've collected a few of these part time gigs, and strangely enough for me none have anything to do with the restaurant industry. It's nerve wracking for me. I know that the arrangement is ultimately beneficial for my studies, I currently have more free time than I know what to do with. I begin taking my WSET (Wine & Spirits Education Trust) courses in June, and will take the Level 2 exam in July if all goes well. In September, I'm going to begin taking classes with the North American Sommelier Association in order to earn a silver pin sommelier certification. It's going to do wonders for my career, but it feels so weird to remove myself from the workforce to just...read. But, once I get this knocked out of the way, I can really start taking charge of things the way I want to. The fear fuels my spite, and I'll be damned if I drop out of this too!

Study Hard!

Clarity is one of the greatest gifts a person can be given. It's such a fluid notion, that when you can actually get a handle on it, it feels magical. It took me years, but within the past few years I knew I wanted a career in the restaurant industry. It definitely wasn't my life goal as a child, but a passion I grew into. And even more recently, I managed to narrow it down even further. That is big for me- after 25 years of putzing around, I finally have a direction to truly pursue. While I have been saying I want to own a brewpub, I always assumed it would be in a chef/owner role. Something recently occurred to me.

I am a solid cook. I'm not the best chef, nor do I have any desire to be a top chef. The time and sheer energy required behind the line is not something I honestly want to pursue. I love reading my cookbooks, learning about foods and technique, but at the end the day? I am way more interested in creating and running a successful establishment. I won't be Top Chef, but I can damn sure be a Top Restauranteur!

To accomplish that, I'm devoting my next few months earning certifications to improve my job chances in the restaurant field. I'm going for my Cicerone (for beer), WSET (for wine and spirits), and CSW (for wine exclusively). Hopefully I can parlay that into a bar position, and if not, I'll go to school for business management classes. It'll be strange, decreasing my hours working, and spending time studying. I haven't done that since... Hell, I didn't even actually study in high school.

Beyond the pursuit of knowledge, I will admit I am seriously motivated by a hefty dose of spite. It's not healthy, but I'm definitely still harboring a lot of anger over what happened on my trip out here last year. But is it really so bad, when I'm finally finding a healthy way to focus that anger? I just want to be more successful than I originally thought I could be. And if that means hella nerding out for a year or two? I'll do it. I'm pretty certain I can get my level one CSW months sooner than I anticipated originally. I've already got a much better understanding of the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions of France than I thought.

Spite. God it makes me happy.

Food nerd

Since getting to California, I've been making a habit of hitting thrift stores to collect culinary books. Cookbooks, wine books, memoirs- the whole nine yards. Originally, I was searching for recent publications that my cheap butt could nab for 80% less than in bookstores, but then I came across a copy of Food & Wine Best of 1989. I had to get it, '89 was the year I was born and I was curious to see what people were eating back then. Since then, I was hooked on more, shall we say, "vintage" books.

I never went to any sort of culinary higher education beyond a vocational class in high school, and then we were using recipe books published in the 80's (in suburban Maine, that's where many palates were rooted in the early 2000s anyway). And nowadays, there are a plethora of amazing cookbooks on the market that are full of bright, innovative, clean dishes- nothing like what I grew up with. Reading through the old books versus the new, it awed me just how different people ate even just 20 years ago. So, from an EXTREMELY nerdy anthropological perspective, it fascinated me.

From another educational side of it, because of my lack of "official" education, having old books makes me feel like I can "catch up" on the formal schooling- when I would have gone to culinary school, I probably still would have been referring to older books. The chef memoirs I admire the most, they all mention classic cookbooks from the 60s and 70s- if they can create fun dishes from old recipe inspiration, surely I can figure something like that out.

Cooking is something that anyone can do. However, creating? Innovating? That takes talent, but more than that, it takes knowledge. How can you riff on classics if you don't understand them? My collection has grown exponentially. And I couldn't be more excited. I love learning about food, and look forward to sharing it with everyone- hopefully making it fun in the process. Second blog will hopefully be coming soon!!!

Habitual Offender

I have terrible habits. I am not about to deny it. But occasionally, my bad habits lead to really, really good things. Let's start with the obvious: my drinking.

My drinking habit is one i have no intention of stopping. I will cut back on occasion, but I will never quit. Drinking got me some of the best jobs I've ever had and the love of my life- that is way too much positive reinforcement for it to be a truly 'bad' thing. NEXT!

When I am at work, and there is nothing for me to do, I have a tendency to do other things. Things like, job hunt. Not at my main job with Chef, mind you, mostly at the part time gig. It's almost an incessant need to do something, so in one shift alone I sent out 3 resumes and learned beginner italian- thank you, Duolingo.com! I'm starting to practice more intermediate lessons as well. Again, education is a positive, so I will probably continue that. And constant résumé revising has really made me look pretty spiffy, employment-wise.

LASTLY! Following my instincts. I read somewhere that when your body craves something, it's missing whatever nutrients are in whatever you are craving. So, when I want chocolate covered gummi bears, BACK OFF, I NEED THEM. Probably. 

Cheers!

All the World's a Stage!

...Pronounced, "stAAH-ge". :) As I mentioned a few posts back, a stage is an apprenticeship in a kitchen, effectively equating to willing slave labor. It's working for free, not for the monetary gain, but for the education and occasionally to audition for a job. For the longest time, I refused to consider staging anywhere- couldn't afford it, and couldn't see a point. I'd learn what I needed to know eventually, right?

Well, while that could have been true, thank god I don't have the patience to find out! After I met J, my decision to start a bar really solidified, and I realized I needed to learn more... Like, *now*. Patience still really isn't my thing. So I thought about it, weighed the pros and cons, and threw away 2 weeks of pay to go work at Richard's again. I'm infinitely glad I did. Turns out you learn faster when you're willing to work for free. ;)

Honestly, I am looking for secondary employment- I can't afford not too, too many leftover debts to repay. However, if another stage presented itself, I would snap it up in a heartbeat.

I tried college once upon a time. Frankly, I hated it. I hated being in classrooms, hated schoolwork, and especially hated homework. Could never really commit myself. Life without a degree certainly isn't easy, but from all of the news stories I'm seeing lately, apparently it's not so easy even with the degree. One thing cooks seem to agree on, though, is that culinary school students tend to be the worst hires. I am not saying all are, I do have classmates that went to culinary college. But the fact is that most of the graduates I've worked with are completely unwilling to shut up and learn, and don't work according to what their chef, their new boss, is telling them. There needs to be classes in humility and common sense. That could help.


Actually, that could help a lot of people. Fuck, can we get that in a high school curriculum somewhere?