Chapter 2~

I've been in such a cool space lately! For the first time in months, things are honestly progressing on the up and up for me. I FINALLY have a place to live, and will be able to get my things out of storage for October. I have a job that I love, that challenges me in all of the right ways and actually supports me in my personal life. And while the transition is still a tad rocky, I'm doing well enough that I got to spend a week in New York City last week with some of my best friends on the planet. Even better, my current job will afford me the ability to do that more often, and travel elsewhere more easily! I'll finally be cooking at home again!!!

With that, I'm finally going to be able to bring a direction to this blog. At least once a week, I'll do a new recipe for y'all and the story that accompanies it. When I travel, I'll tell you about the amazing local products I find. And while I study for my sommelier certifications- well, you'll get an earful on how goddamn tired I am of drinking goddamn French wines, no matter how delicious they are. (Seriously, I love French wines now, but studying them makes me want to slam my head into their stupid limestone-laced terroir.)

It's a new chapter, and I can't wait to start writing it!

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!!!

Yes, Chef?

So I've found myself in the increasingly odd position of being hired as an executive chef for a sports bar. Made odder by the fact that the restaurant itself was advertising a line cook position on Craigslist (Two major red flags right there by any sane person's standards). On the one hand, I'm excited for the opportunity. Haven't done this before! On the other hand, I've read too much Anthony Bourdain. This can only end in tears. What am I thinking??? I know I am a solid line cook with a palate that has potential. But as for a full-blown, calling the shots chef? I can imagine it, maybe, when I hit my thirties. But right now I am a mid-twenties homeless ball o' nuts trying to sort myself out.

I took the job, of course, because I need to be able to survive California cost of living. Will this be a good thing? Eeeeeh... remains to be seen. Personally, I am uncharacteristically pessimistic about it. I've been in the industry too long and seen too many fuckups to kid myself. But at the same time, that goddamned little optimist in the back of my head that prevents me from being a total bitter cynic is rooting for a decent outcome. She's a bit of an idiot. It will be a learning experience, for sure. And after some of the "chefs" I've worked for? Well, I can't possibly fuck up *THAT* bad.

Know-It-All?

It's weird, how you can listen to someone and lose respect for them. Going out with coworkers, our sous chef came with us. She is an abrasive personality when sober, but she has taught me quite a bit. At the same time, now I've got to hear her outside of work. So now it's a mystery- how does someone with so little respect for people in general get and keep her job? Seriously, she talks trash about EVERYONE, including Chef. I'm not saying I'd follow the guy off of a cliff, but based on the positive reception he's been getting for a steady 3 years now? He's obviously not an idiot. So I'm confused- why does she bother staying?

She says she wants her own place one day. I have a morbid curiosity as to a; whether she'll actually get her own place; and b; if it'll last? She just doesn't seem to get the fact that she could possibly have other shit to learn. It's a weird to watch. And sad- because while I'll still listen to her to an extent, I will never bother trying to learn anything from her anymore. Empathy is too important to me.