I am 52 years old and been in kitchens off and on for 34 years. It has been way more on than off, but homelessness and drug addiction can take its toll on anybody, so a few years off during that time following with college to get right again and rebuild. Am I saying too much? I rather just keep it real; I crossed 10 years clean. The pandemic has been terrible for the industry and even so after the spring break I was again in a kitchen feeding people even during the fires in Oregon. I wrote a essay back then about what it means to take people away from their worries to a special time or place, so they could have comfort for a meal. I posted it and gathered over a 1k comments on several platforms. The responses reminded me and I had reminded them about why we do what we do in the kitchen for long hours and not much pay often. We do it for joy of others and something else and that I found tonight and want to share. It is rare that a guest will actually ask to see the Chef/Cook to thank them for the meal, and it is rarer when we get 1-3 minuets to run out of the kitchen take a running high five and return to flip a steak. It is all shut down here for in house dinning in Oregon and I am not in the kitchen again now coming on 3 months. I dutifully make my own food still finding time to try new things, but then I have to eat it all or find someone to give it to. That of course is a joy when I find a hungry soul. Hmm, is that what we look for a hungry soul I ponder? Netflix and I have become very close with a long list of movies' that require finishing. It so happens tonight I found a gem. I am watching 'Julie and Julia' and keep listening to Meryl Streep enliven and channel Julia Childs and can hear both the voice of the book by Julia Childs I am reading and bring forth memories of watching Chef Childs as a young man. I took a pause, I note this for the Mexican Wedding cookies I again batched out are making a mess, and my cat loves to lick the sugar off if she gets a chance. I let her just to laugh when she gets a snootful of powdered sugar and then blast it on the table, and I am a nice fellow whoes cats love cookies. Well back to what I was saying about Julie and Julia which is on pause right now. Julie just rolled over sleeping while her timer went of for the Beef Bourguignon and I threw my hands in the air yelling "Nooooo". My cat looked at me with query wondering what had gone wrong and quickly pay me no attention. I had finished the cookie. I have been so excited during this movie as Julie had to kill the Lobster, Music: "Lobster killer ..." end music or as Julia talks about creating a mayo that is 'scientific' as she says. I get that. I often bring up TAT charts for recipe creation or break down concepts in scientific terms while discussing food on the internet and can match both Julie' and Julia's excitement of discovery that is our profession of culinary arts. The way that every cuisine is out there in print for everyone to see from all corners of the globe is a treasure that never runs out. I thought to myself how cool it was to follow an idea like cooking every recipe in The French Way like Julie is doing, then I remember that I did a cooking show for 5 years while I taught myself to walk, run, then ran a marathon in year 3 after my injury trauma and most of all I had to stop having my seizures from the trauma to get back into a kitchen. I did all sorts of cooking with 3k videos teaching people with the only thing I had Food Stamps and a camera. I don't advise getting hurt 2 terms from a degree, but well life happens. The need to stay involved was what drove me and it is exactly what drives Julie and Julia. Cooking is a way to reach not just yourself but others and that is the essence of what I want to say. If you might be down and out like many people are during this pandemic I suggest finding ways to rekindle that joy and passion of cooking that we all have who bustle the tile floors and stainless steel with monsters of heat all around in simple chaos of creation that is our place of comfort. I have so many books about cooking and I am always reaching out to fellow Chefs to speak food, but sometimes something is missing since I am not in a working kitchen. While watching this movie full of memories and laughter it brought much of that what seems to drift away, Joe my cat came looking for more cookies and snorted when none were evident just now. I thought I would stop and write to you all and say, "Bon Appetit" and more so "Profite De Ta Vie-Enjoy your life." I have told my doctor that "When you go to China, Brazil, or France the human body does not change, but for us Chefs the local food, products, and the cuisines all change and there is never and end to what we can learn."
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