Perfect Day

Today was a great day.

I got to wake up to a man I care about deeply. I went to lunch with an amazing woman I'm proud to call a friend, and see an old coworker who is doing so well for himself. My lady friend and I got to indulge our inner children and watch a musical that meant the world to us. I treated myself to a fantastic dinner that was helmed by another former coworker who has done wonders for himself and his new family. And I got to cap my evening off with a dear old friend, his wife, and new friends. I'm walking home now, full and full of love and a tad tipsy, and all I can think about is just how lucky I am. Lucky to live in such a fashion that has introduced me to all of these wonderful people, and to work in such an industry where I can walk into two totally different establishments and feel like I've stepped into my own Cheers. The restaurant industry is hard. So very, very hard. But days like today make it beyond worth it, and I can't wait to create this kind of a day for someone else. The kind of day where you can walk around with ramen broth all over your shirt and not give any fucks. Where you can eat until you hurt, not because you're hungry, but because you know someone busted their ass on a dish and you know you'd regret missing it.
Restaurants are hard, but they are so full of love and passion. I'm so happy to find myself here!!!!

~Poof~

Fine dining is a lot like a magic show- if you know nothing about the inner working of the restaurant, it is very easy to get dazzled by the show. And a lot of classic menu items are easy to get swept away by, even if they are the simplest thing in the world.

This is a huge reason of why I like studying food trends- while some is intensely impractical for a home cook, like some of the more complex French cooking (looking at you, Paté en Croute!); some items take minimal effort. One of my favorite comfort foods is mussels steamed in wine. It oozes sex and sophistication, while being incredibly versatile and adaptable to whatever is in your refrigerator.

It's literally as simple as throwing mussels into a pot with wine, butter, broth (or other liquid), and other aromatics. You can do whatever you want with steamed mussels. They're fantastic. Just get the liquid bubbling, throw the cleaned mussels into the pot, cover it, and walk away for 15min. Badabing badaboom, pot o' delicious.

I suppose I could also use the mussels as a metaphor. Occasionally you gotta take the random shit in your life, toss it together, and walk away for a bit to see what happens.  Most of the time? It is going to be far better than expected.

Guest Services

I hate the word, "customer".

This hasn't always been a thing, I used to sling the word around at work almost as often as I dropped "fuck" and "shit" in the kitchen (Restaurants are wonderfully lenient,  vocabulary-wise). For the longest time, people who came to where I worked were just faceless annoyances that helped keep me employed.

And then I started reading about fine dining restaurants in magazines. I visited a couple, to see what the big deal was. I thought of myself as a customer. But setting foot into those establishments, heinously underdressed in some instances? I was shocked. Not by the portion to price ratio, I expected that, but by how... welcomed I felt. I fully expected to be greeted with disdain, pretentious attitudes, annoyance. It's what I would have done back then, had I been in my server's shoes. I was always dining solo, my tip certainly wasn't going to make any significant difference in their earnings. I never got that blowback. Every time, I was greeted with grace, friendliness, and dignity. They took what could have been an awkward, stiff experience, and made me feel like I had been a regular for years. The sensation stuck with me. I wondered, how did they accomplish that and I couldn't? How were our restaurants so different?

I had to know. I had knowledge, and I was sick of working shitty sports bars. I needed to know I could do better. I wound up working at a Spanish wine bar with a service manager named Sean.

Sean is a larger than life personality, with a laugh to match and more blue checked shirts than is really reasonable. And he is the modern-day Dionysus, always ensuring anyone who encountered him had a smile. He had one steadfast rule, that anyone who crossed the restaurant threshold was a guest, NOT a customer. He felt that thinking of a person as a customer was too impersonal, and we were here to curate an experience for people. We were told to treat every table as if they were, in fact, guests in our home.

It brings a whole new aspect to people-watching thinking that way. And it turns what could be a very rote experience and makes it far more enjoyable. Guests become more accessible, more approachable from the server's perspective. And they pick up on that sentiment, and respond in kind. It creates a more jovial atmosphere all around, and it is the entire reason I have yet to get bored with my current job. I no longer work with Sean, but he did me a huge favor helping me adjust my mindset.

Return to the Blogosphere!

A good idea (in any field) is if you haven't got a clue what you're doing, you should absolutely stop and reconsider. Reorganize. Reboot. No shame in starting over, after all, if you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it at all? (Thanks, John Wooden!)

I stopped writing for a year because I really didn't know where I was going... at all. My writing was aimless, my personal life was sloppy and inconsistent, and I needed to figure out what the hell I was really doing with my life. Ultimately, I'm still not 100% sure on that front. I've got a lot of options ahead and I'm thankfully in a very flexible field I adore. But life's definitely gotten more stable. My dog and I are in a cute studio I can comfortably afford, my bills are all paid mostly on time for the first time...frankly ever. I even have a human being who likes spending time with me on the regular! It's pretty exciting. And so delightfully average. I absolutely love it. And I feel comfortable enough to start writing again.

Writing about the cooking I'm doing, the events I work, the weird little freelance life I'm building alongside my day job. I can't guarantee this blog will always best filled with ridiculous stories and weird adventures, but hopefully it'll bring a smile to your face!

Cheers~

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!