eggbeater

Star Chefs Congress. when chefs watch chefs.

we learn from each other. we learn from those who speak the same language as us. we like to see new toys, we like to play, we like to gawk and star fuck and snack. we network, we stand back, we jump in, we press our jackets and we show up late. we meet & greet. we are awkward and full of hubris. we think we're above it all and we know we're so so        small.       we know we have so much to learn.                   we think we know it all. we think tv has made us. we want tv to make us.                                          we toil away quietly. we blend into the crowd and we wear patten leather clogs. we spike our hair and get new ink and we have disdain for all that shit.         we use hydrocolloids and make excuses and we just cook. we get our hands dirty and we haven't picked up a saute pan in years. we only sharpen our own knives on a stone and we use electric knives.

we.

we. cannot be contained by one definition.

chef.

what does it mean anyway.

but what i do know is this.

i found my calling. the first time i put on a chef's white double buttoned jacket i was home. and i didn't even know what home was. not ever. but i knew.

and that doesn't mean i don't doubt. that i don't falter and get lost and lose it. to be inspired is a grace, not a guarantee.

love does not promise.

life has no clock.

who you meet, what you see, what you taste, who you taste, words you read, music you hear, fruit you pick, who you watch, who learns you, who you thank, who thanks you, what press you get, what fame you have to live up to, what you chase, who you chase, contracts you sign, how you struggle, what you lose, who you lose

all of this is fleeting. memory. rememory d.

*

a few nibbles from my live tweets~

"Cuisine is dynamic. Anything that uses the vagaries of ingredients, and that those ingredients change, fuel innovation." David Kinch

Dan Barber called out the concept of "trend-ifying" professional cooking/cheffing by talking shut about our "Media Climate." nice. Word.

"Food is ephemeral. It becomes a memory after you eat it. It should provokes thought & make you learn something." David Kinch

"It doesn't matter how good it looks on the beautiful porcelain plate/wood/ metal. If it doesn't taste really really good..." Thomas Keller

Next dessert is about spring. We don't have rhubarb because winter is very long. So we thought green. Green is the colour of spring. Patrice Demers

Instead of using sugar in apple sorbet we use the ice apple juice." Patrice Demers

What does a chef do? He cooks. And cooking is a craft. Cooking is repetition. And one must learn the craft. ~Thomas Keller

"it's the chef's responsibility to nurture." Thomas Keller

*

when we go to these conferences we rate ourselves, compare. we see who we aspire to be and those who we would rather die than become. we say we'll never sell out or we look for better ways to sign our soul off.

i went to learn what i know already. that i love my people. that i despise and desire the industry and i will forever be beholden to the craft. that the media is a hungry machine with no teeth and taste buds. it swallows whole like the cyclops, never satiated.

but in the fight to leap into its eyeless clutches or to pry ourselves from its grasp, we, if we open our eyes and hearts and minds, can see and feel and taste and smell and learn so

much.

we hear our words in the mouths of others. we laugh and we are understood. 

we learn from each other. we learn from those who speak the same language as us. whether the alphabet or the intonations are the same, or not. we speak the same language. when we pick up a knife or taste an apple or whisk a warm cream or build a story with disparate textures.

*

a lot of people these past days thanked me for writing eggbeater. it is an honor. thank you for working the line every night, and the ovens every day. thank you for upholding this craft i love with all my heart.

thank you for riding the storm with me. sfl

cook interview preparation

you see an ad on Craigslist. 
it says, Line Cooks Needed for Busy Uptown Restaurant. or Pastry Chef Wanted for Three Star Resort. or ___________ [your favorite restaurant here] Needs _________ [exactly what you're qualified as.]
you promptly send in a resume.
then you...

what?

what do you do next?
when do you change your outgoing message on your cell phone to sound professional?
when do you get your clothes pressed?
when do you start doing research on the chef/pastry chef/restaurant/company you're about to interview with?
when do you start asking around about that chef/pastry chef/restaurant/company to see what your peers say?
when do you change your email address from [email protected] to [email protected]?
when do you research what restaurants are paying for that position in that city?
when do you work on your negotiating skills?
when do you take out a calculator and do the math? on a piece of paper?

when do you do YOUR fucking homework?

because, you know what?

if YOU don't do YOUR homework, why should I hire you? why are you wasting my time?
I have to do MY homework.
I can't sit on my ass waiting for my education to come to me.
if you don't do your homework, you look and sound like an asshole.
you are a shoemaker even before you cut your fingertips off or walk into someone carrying a pot of hot stock or get asked to leave the kitchen/restaurant/your station in the middle of service.
if you don't do your homework, what the fuck are you doing between the time of sending your resume and sitting down in front of the chef for the interview?
what are you thinking?
how are you preparing?

do me a favor? do all chefs everywhere a favor?

learn how to interview.
learn this before you learn how to tie an apron and hold a ladle.
learn how to negotiate your rate of pay. 
learn how to type into Google, "Paul Canales," or "Rachel Leising" or "Dan Lepard"+London.
this is how you learn about the people you're about to meet. know a little something about what they cook/stand for. think HARD about if that's the kind of kitchen you want to work in.*
especially if their name is in the Craigslist ad, you really have no excuse.

if you want to do extra curricular homework, check out ChefDB.com this is an incredible resource, especially if you want to see who worked where when and with whom. in fact, while I'm speaking on it, feel free to put your name within ChefDB {DB stands for Database} because then I can find you. what's great about ChefDB.com is that when sending a resume electronically, you can merely say, "for the rest of my resume see it online at ChefDB.com" and link to it. it's so easy. do it now. stop fucking around on Twitter and do something for your career.

you do NOT need to go to culinary school to get a job cooking/baking professionally. you can follow these instructions and get just as far, and possibly farther. and you won't be burdened trying to pay off a private loan with a minimum wage job. 

it's important to look at your resume before you hit send. are there spelling errors? are you applying for a cook position and it says on your resume that you are already a chef?

if you have absolutely no relevant cooking experience on your resume, say why you're applying for a baker/cook position. if you send a resume from another career, I, like other chefs, erase it because we don't know why, if you're a lawyer or an advertising exec or a professor of biology, you're applying for a prep or chef de cuisine or a butcher job.

*on the subject of thinking about if you really want to work for/with chef/pastry chef/restaurant/company you're about to interview with, you may want to think about your trajectory. you may want to ask for feedback about your resume-- about the path your on, from a chef who's been cooking twice or three times as long as you have.

the reasons for this are too many to describe here, but your career is a series of steps you take to reach a goal. or goals.

I've seen a lot of resumes (at least 6 dozen) in the past few weeks, and some resumes are so haphazard I just want to ask, "Why?" I realize that the economy only worsens matters what with lay-offs and restaurants closing left and right. but think about your path. because you should have one.

I didn't "have a path" initially, but I was given some great advice at the very beginning, 

and I listened to it.

and I'm glad I did, because, even without a culinary school degree I've seen and cooked and baked inside of most of my favorite restaurants and for/with amazingly talented chefs & pastry chefs.

I am always honest in my interviews. but I don't disparage any chefs/restaurants I've worked for before. I give notice professionally and finish as strong as chefs/owners will allow me the opportunity. I do my math/salary/chef/owner/company homework and when I show up for interviews I secretly "interview" all the staff I come into contact with. I sit at the bar and ask the bartenders how long they've worked there. I talk to waiters and ask if the restaurant is busy. I have questions ready for the owners/chef and I present my strengths and weaknesses honestly. I know myself and I only apply for jobs I want, and want to dedicate myself to, and want to stay at.

because we don't just sit down and talk-interview for professional cooking jobs.
because we also "trail" for said positions.
it's utterly important that you do not bullshit or lie on your resume or in your interview.
chefs, like cops and lawyers and the mob, have channels.
we talk.
we kibbutz.
quietly.
we cohort,
and we 'ask around' after a person.
YOU can do the same thing.
find out about the not-so-public persona of the chef/pastry chef/restaurant/company you're about to interview with.
go to the restaurant under cover and even if you can't afford to eat there, watch the dining room at 8 pm on a Saturday night.

because we "trail" or 'present a tasting' before we get the job, it's important that you don't bullshit during the interview. because kitchens are X-Rays. especially we the insane pastry chefs. we will see through you.

if we're paying attention.

and if we're not paying attention to the fact that you know nothing and were too lazy to do your homework and did nothing besides hit send on a machine to get a job

then you shouldn't be working for that chef anyhow.

because you don't have time to waste.
because you have an education you need to grab by the cojones, that you then need to learn how to butcher properly.

Napa Grown Organic Produce Summer 2010. In Need of Home. Now.

About two weeks ago Patrick Ridder called me, worried. He'd planted what he calls a garden but what any chef would call a small farm, and he has no one to sell its growing produce to. He got too excited, he admits, when he began buying seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds...

and now he has too much of a great thing on his hands.

Are you interested in buying any or all of it for your restaurant?

Patrick's garden sits on a dash of ground between his house on the levee, and the Napa River. About a mile south of Yountville. The land is CCOF Certified Organic, but between all y'all and me, he farms 'beyond organic,' meaning he doesn't use any nasties, not even the ones the USDA allows for Organic Certification.

His dilemma means that you, or a restaurant, chef or food professional you know, in Northern California, could buy all or most of his garden's bounty, if you act now. 

You will not see Patrick at a farmers market. You will not see a stand by the side of the road. You will not even see a sign leading to the garden, or the fig trees, the cherry orchard or the grapes. Massa Ranch is not a U Pick or an advertised farm.

But, if you want to taste his okra, his 6 kinds of tomatoes, 4 varieties of eggplant, the best, most densely flavored Black Mission Figs from the ineffable Fig Church, roast his beets, make ratatouille with his summer squashes, char his peppers with fire on the grill or braise collards or slice melon or steam Blue Lakes or just wrap your tongue around Quadrato D'Asti Rosso {pepper}, Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza {summer squash}, Thai Long Green {eggplant}, Jaune Dickfleischige {cucumber}, Canton Long greasy-Back {pole bean} and more,

contact Patrick Ridder by leaving a comment here with your contact information. Or hit the email link on his gorgeous blog Root Cap.

Your information will not be published if you leave it here. It will be passed on to Patrick directly.

I hope you take me up on my fruit and veg pimping.

Believe me when I say you will not be disappointed if you do.

Want to Cook in New York City?

The world is your oyster. Right now. As spring turns into summer. Before the holidays and after late winter's lull.

Restaurants have seasons they like to open in. They follow the moon, in a crazy sort of way.

And right now, the moon is very full, pregnant, in fact, with imminent births.

If you want to cook New York City, may I suggest you check in with Craigslist today? Whether it be in San Francisco, somewhere in the delicious deep South, or right here in the Big Apple, a city for which sleep is not needed, you might see a posting you want to answer.

 

New York is your oyster. Whether you swallow or chew, spurn or hoard, relish or retch, eat traif or not, come and get it while the gettin' is good.

{see you soon?}

The Mermaid Day Parade! CONEY ISLAND! Brooklyn, NY! Saturday June 19, 2010

if you know me, you know i adore the mermaid day parade in brooklyn.

if you really know me, you know why. 

if you've known me a long time you have seen me dress up for it at least once.

if you have no idea what i'm going on about, now even you mermaid day parade virgins can listen to the whispering words of the wild & wacky isle of coney.

if you want to come/go this year, i cannot endorse, suggest, cajole, force, beg, suggest, carry, kidnap, mention, guilt, announce, and/or tell you enough.

i can personally guarantee that   you've never seen,  whispered, sorted, bitten, felt, tasted, touched, licked, breathed, smoked, peeled, sliced, diced, sanded, snorted, cooked, eaten, plugged in, sweet nothinged, ridden, nibbled, undressed for, taken the subway to                       anything else like it!

you have my word{s}.

"Sycamore Trees" by Ricky Ian Gordon at the Signature Theater, Arlington Virginia until June 20, 2010

Just in case you live anywhere near Arlington, Virginia, USA, please consider making your way to my uncle Ricky's new play, Sycamore Trees.

Writer David Hoffman for the Fairfax Times writes about this incredible work best.

Twenty five years in the writing, almost 50 years in the living, and directed by Tina Landau, something tells me you won't be disappointed by Sycamore Trees. The only disappointment I have is I live far away.

You have about a week & a 1/2 more to go.

Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, VA 22206 | 703-820-9771

Katmer making: video by Anissa Helou at Orkide, in Gaziantep, Turkey

Making Katmer from anissa helou on Vimeo.

Anissa Helou, a friend I was honoured enough to meet, eat with, and feed, in London is busier than most of us dream to be. Here is a short video she's made worth watching if for nothing else than to watch someone's brilliant hands handling pastry more pliable than pizza dough, as thin as strudel. And look at the color of that pistachio dust! 

The world of pastry is an endless as the hands and the cultures that dream them up! Never be limited by what merely lives in the books and kitchens of your home country. All pastry is related, bound by common history.

Lemon Marmalade Recipe

I used to be afraid of making Marmalade. Afraid is maybe a soft word. I don't want to admit to you all how afraid I was. Scared like a cat hiding under a car scared.

Scared still.

Maybe not, though, for the reasons you might think.

I was scared of making marmalade because I respect it so much. Its craft, its patience, its perfect balance of sweet, gel, bitter, bite, fruit to peel ratio. All of it. When citrus marmalade is right, like so many things, its perfect is quiet, soft, shy.

A je ne sais quoi perfection.

It stemmed from having once, perhaps 20 years ago, done a bit of work for the British Marmalade Goddess June Taylor. June did it the old school way. Really old school, ancient. Cutting thousands of citrus orbs by hand. With a knife. No cutting of corners, no electric machinery.

I even took a marmalade class from her.

But still. Scared.

And then I was forced. Pulled out from under the car by my tail.

By the most wondrous citrus marmalade! Kumquat Marmalade! Anna Hansen, possibly by way of Christine Manfield, had one of the best, most straightforward, citrus fruit marmalade recipes anyone could possess & execute. I arched my back, hissed, and then looked as if nothing was ever wrong with hiding under a big dangerous machine.

When I tasted that gorgeous, bright, fruity Kumquat Marmalade I never looked back. When I landed back in America and began working at 10 Downing all of Florida's citrus was a' raging, I set to task. And marmalade I made! I made grapefruit, lime-ginger, Meyer lemon, Orange-Mineola Tangelo-Grapefruit-Navel Orange, lemon and grapefruit-fennel. If you go into that restaurant now you will still be eating my marmalades. /yeah, I went a little crazy once the fear left.

So, without further waiting & hoping, I give you my "recipe" which is more of a method than anything else.

For real live Recipes please check out Elise's step-by-step instruction for a Meyer Lemon marmalade recipe on Simply Recipes. But beware: it's a time consuming, old school method. And David Lebovitz has a great recipe for Seville Orange.

**TAKE NOTE: For your health & safety if you plan on jarring your marmalade you must follow proper 'canning' procedure.** I am a restaurant pastry chef and am not making marmalade for resale to the public. I am cooling down swiftly & keeping my product refrigerated indefinitely. 

LEMON, ORANGE, KUMQUAT, TANGERINE, MEYER LEMON MARMALADE etc*

• prep your fruit any way you like. I like to think in terms of bite size pieces but I have also been known to shake it up a bit. know that you will lose size when it begins to cook, like a cotton shirt you put in hot water & a dryer on the first go round. your knife should be non serrated and be sharp.
  make sure to discard only the stem end where the little green button resides. taste your fruit! even if they are lemons, eat it rind and all. yes. no whining. you need to know how sweet or sour your overall batch of fruit is. you cannot be psychic about this step. you have to know. for certain. empirically.
• pull, push, nudge out any and all seeds. SAVE YOUR SEEDS!! the seeds are money. do not throw
  them away.
• when you have all your cut up fruit, and your seeds in a separate container, weigh your fruit. write this number {I like to work in grams because they are easier, better, easier to remember & make more sense} on a piece of masking tape. put all your fruit in a container large enough to hold it & the step you are about to take next.
• fill your container with cold water from the tap. you may use expensive water too if you like. the fruit should BE COVERED AND SUBMERGED but NOT DROWNING. my most common mistake is I drown the fruit. you become sorry later, I promise you. if you have OCD and are worried about that fruit that floats to the top you can lay a folded clean dishcloth over the top and put a plate on top of that. but none of that is necessary. place this container in the fridge and affix that important piece of masking tape to the outside.
• in order to make marmalade you NEED a stainless steel HEAVY BOTTOMED pot. your pot should be twice the size of the batch of marmalade you are making. please do not crowd the pot. you spent all this time prepping the fruit and taking out all the seeds...
• you will also need a piece of cheesecloth the size of a dishtowel. you may also use a jelly bag, but you may not use a paper coffee filter. if the mesh on the cloth you are using is too tight, your marmalade will not get thick enough. or, it won't get as thick as if you use cheesecloth.
• the next day {although truth be told you can also cook this two days after you submerge it under water} dump all the contents of the container into your stainless steel pot.
• you know you have just the right amount of water in there when, upon pressing down on the fruit, you feel a mass like washing a sweater in the bathroom sink. if it feels like floating, amorphous fruit, your fruit is drowning and you need to pour away some of your water.
• turn the heat on to medium or medium high.
• do not leave the house.
• but you may want to plan an afternoon activity. the next step, depending on your batch size, could take 3+ hours total cooking time.
• you are cooking your prepped fruit until THE PEEL IS TEETH TENDER. you are not making mush. you do not want a rapid boil. you do not want aggressive water or to stir the mass aggressively. be firm but fair with your wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula.
• AS SOON AS THE PEEL is palatable by way of feel and taste, you are going to measure out 40-60% of the fruit's total weight {which you wrote on that piece of masking tape} in sugar. white sugar. so. if you have 1500g lemon slices, you probably want 750 - 900g sugar. lemons are sour. but if you have 1000g Navel oranges or Meyer lemons you may only want 400g sugar. see? see why grams are better? easier, that's for damn sure.
• now you want to turn the flame down to an exact medium. not medium high, not medium low. call in one of the Three Bears if you can't decide. if you're lucky the Christian Right will not have locked up Goldylocks just yet.
• see those beautiful glistening seeds? touch them. fondle them. feel their slimyness? that slime is natural pectin. fruit protein of the gods.
• dump out your seeds into the cheesecloth. you probably want to have folded your cheesecloth in half, though, so it's not too porous.
• wipe out any excess pectin that's clinging to the sides, with your cheesecloth. every molecule matters. I'm not joking.
• make a little package of your seeds. NOT TIGHT. do not suffocate your seeds. they are like bees-- give them room and you will be much rewarded. tie top with food grade twine or a rubber band. plop in the center of your hot fruit mess.
• stir infrequently, but intentionally.
• do not leave the house. but you may water the garden or dust.
• place a saucer or two in the freezer.
• this is what you are looking for:
• your marmalade is done when it begins to thicken and your bubbles get lazy. yes, bubbles. you want your mixture to simmer on the high side.
• your marmalade is done when the mixture darkens but it is overcooked if it begins to take on a golden hue.
• when you think you're getting close, spoon out a bit of the mixture & drop it onto your frozen saucer. when the droplet firms up instead of melts out it is ready.
• do not plotz if your first batch does not set up stiff like a tight skirt. like a three piece suit. you are making a homemade something wondrous and it will not look like any commercial jam, jelly or marmalade you have in your condiments section.
• when you think your marmalade is done, pour it immediately into a large vessel and place that in a larger vessel filled with ice. or you can leave it out at room temp, uncovered, until it can be handled.
  

*This recipe is good for "soft" skinned fruits. By this I do not mean limes or grapefruits. If you are dead set on making either or both, let me know in the comments section and I will tell you how I deal with these fruits. I definitely do not suggest starting your marmalade making with limes or grapefruits as they are tricky in the frustrating kind of way.

Croissants & Danish: Bakery Production by Vincent Talleu

This is amazing! If you want to see more by Vincent Talleu he has a vlog for bread baking on YouTube.

How Do I Start Cooking in a Restaurant {without any experience or tradeschool training}?

I go through phases of answering questions from readers, and fellow cooks. People "email me on the side" when their letters are too long for the comment section, or when they want to remain anonymous, or when their question(s) are too many to fit a singular post. Sometimes people approach me personally. I try and make sure someone has read everything I, and you all, have written before answering people's questions. I give advice/guidance freely, when I have time.

In these last months, for some reason, I've fielded dozens upon dozens of inquiries! I don't always have time to dedicate to a long email, but a few days ago, I did, and this, below, is what came out of that.

This letter struck me particularly, and the person has agreed to allow me to post our correspondence. I try to direct most people's questions to the comments section, where all of you can benefit from the inquiry & response, because a lot of the questions are the same.

I only ever use my own experience as a place from which to give advice. The rest is up to you.

*

Dear Shuna,

 
I have been following eggbeater for some time now, quietly observing, privately cheering and consistently marveling at your victories in the kitchen and in life. I have read and re-read so many of your entries. And I have read & re-read many of the user comments that follow. I know how many people proclaim you an inspiration, so I fear that my own claim of such may not hold the weight that I wish.
 
This being said, I am shaken to my core by your words, your observations and your honesty. Or perhaps “ignited” is a better word. Your understanding of passion as torture, of drive, of food and cooking as a true art – one to perfect over a lifetime – resonates deeply with me. Perhaps your words resonate so powerfully because, up until recently, I have focused my passions on another life-long study, visual arts – even attaining a degree in them last winter.
 
Or perhaps your words ring so holy to me because I find myself at the back door of a restaurant I adore, with no culinary background (aside from my own kitchen) and a gut-wrenching desire to work in a professional kitchen that nearly brings me to tears.
 
I am 23 years old, a young woman with a college degree in a field I love, but am not “ignited” by. And I am now staring down my future. I have spent the last few years playing off my passion for food as a hobby, slowing chipping away at my art degree until graduation. I do not regret my degree – I think it has broadened my perceptions of the world, refined my tastes and actually helped me to realize where my vocational passions lie.
 
To say that I was pleased when I stumbled upon your blog would be a massive understatement. I became fidgety with an excitement reserved for sugar-saturated toddlers. In the past few years I have devoured countless writings by chefs and cooks that serve as both affirmations to the initiated and warnings to the misinformed. And as I step up to test my resolve, I do not fear the hard work, the long hours, the cuts, the burns, the tears. In actuality, I welcome them with a kind of foolish enthusiasm I myself cannot explain. At the heart of it all, the choice to pursue a career in cooking feels like one of the first truthful choices I have made for my future in 3 or 4 years.  
 
I suppose that the reason I write you this letter (aside from my awe-inspired praise) is to seek a connection with you on some level. Guidance perhaps. My pawing at the restaurant’s door paid off. I received an interview, which resulted in a subsequent interview. Proud of my own pluck, I went to the second interview yesterday. I spoke with both the chef and the owner. I was nervous, but collected. Suddenly, the interview was underway… or rather the lecture. The owner took the reigns. He was honest and blunt, and I respected his “no bullshit” attitude. But at the bottom of everything, I felt his unspoken assumption that I was some starry-eyed school girl with dreams of becoming the next Food Network personality.
 
I wonder now how I might have been interviewed were I taller, brawnier, penis-ier. Would the undertones of warning have been so prevalent? There is no denying, I am small and doe-eyed (some have said) and perhaps it seems crazy that I shouldn’t want to work front of the house. But that is not where my heart lies. The owner ended the interview by offering me a job as dishwasher “if I want it.” And now I am sitting here at my computer (taking up far too much of your time) sharing with you my first hurdle… and curious about your thoughts. I went into the interview ready to accept whatever bottom-of-the-totem job they had to offer. I went in ready to learn and work my way up, but I left questioning myself (and this was far worse than any interviewing skeptic). Does it reflect a lack of passion if I question myself? God, I hope not.
 
If you have had the time to read this far, thank you. I apologize for how long this letter has become. I began merely to tell you how much I love your blog. Please keep writing. Please keep teaching. I only hope I have the privilege to someday learn from a chef and mentor like you.
 

Sincerely, Respectfully, Passionately, s.

~~~~~

Hello s.,

First of all, thank you. Look how brave you are! zow. I am honoured to be on the other side of your words. The internet never ceases to amaze me. What I would not have given for such a resource when I began.

I hope you'll forgive that my letter will be shorter than yours.

Without knowing the details of where you reside, what your expenses are, how big your commute is, the name of the restaurant/chef you're speaking of, I will say this:

Take that dishwashing job. Proudly. Defiantly. Go in there and kick ass. I washed dishes as one of my first jobs and I HAVE NEVER REGRETTED it. I am not being ironic or facetious or downwardly mobile or spouting some anarcho bullshit. Because I know how to wash dishes on a commercial dishwasher my dishwasher person & machine does not have me by the balls. {Which is a power play they often make.} Because I've worked that station I teach my crew how to respect them. "Dishes" don't go the dish pit with gobs of product left on them. I bake in such a way so as not to give them more work. I soak all my pots. I pitch in and help when I have a moment. It always takes them off guard. In a good way.

Hear This:
If you start at the bottom of a kitchen no one can give you shit. no one.

You roll up your sleeves and eat humble pie and the kitchen is in awe. Because it's a hard fucking station. It teaches you order, cleanliness. It teaches you what the diners eat and what they don't. It teaches you to be part of the gang. And, in most of the USA, it teaches you Kitchen Spanish. Also, if you work fast enough, when you're not washing dishes, you're doing prep. And that's the way all people move up in kitchens: when you finish your list you learn something new by asking someone else if they need help. And someone always needs something done that 1. they can't get to & 2. they loathe doing.

All that said: if this is not a Michelin rated {well you know what I mean here} restaurant you don't want to spend more than 3 mos on that station. Keep your eye on your prize s. Know what your goals are and, very quietly, privately, stealthily, achieve them!

Show those owners up. They might think you need a penis to do that job, but you know you don't. You know that there have been women in history before you who have done harder jobs. ain't no thang, girl. You know, I know what I can and can not do and that doesn't make me a woman it makes me human.

I ask one something of the people who write to me for advice:
write me again in 6 months and tell me what you ended up doing, if my advice was taken, if it helped, how it didn't. and what you think you'll be doing in another 6 months.

Thanks again for writing. I hope you step into this profession no matter who/what tries to get in your way.
Good luck.

all the best,


shuna fish lydon
e g g b e a t e r
cooking, baking & nifty photos
http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/

><((((º>

& twitter.com/shunafish

Chef Advice. on what it means to be a worker among workers.

A fine line is walked in kitchens.
Sharp as a knife wet against stone.

We are to stand book straight but hope it is only quiet discipline we exude. Never to be mistaken with vapid cockiness.

The line we walk is as fine as cable pulled taut between two towering buildings, and we are to stay alive by balancing between:

confident & humble
knowing & clueless
teachable & skilled
frightened & brave
deferential & friendly
macho & passive
one-of-the-guys & on-the-outside
aggressive & patient
smart & base
experienced & young
cocky & stupid

always.

Sound easy?

It's not. In fact, one might say, in the whirl of confusion these colluding and colliding directives create, one achieves it, merely by spinning out of control in an attempt to be all things to all chefs in all kitchens everywhere.

And while it can be said that all kitchens speak the same language, it's impossible to know which costume to don from one kitchen to the next.

So what I say to you is this:

walk in to a kitchen like it is someone else's home. walk in to their home like they are colleagues of your parents or your grandparent's friends. do not walk in like it's  frat house. do not stroll into the small dog park if you're a rottweiler. do not take up a lot of space with your voice or your person or your neediness or your fright. be professional and courteous and pay close attention to the customs so you can follow them with as much ease as you can muster. walk into the kitchen on time. {"if you're on time you're late," as a friend of mine says.} walk in groomed. walk in with two sharpies in your pocket & a notebook beside it. one sharpie is thin for taking notes, the other is bold for masking tape labels. ask what the chef wants to be called. pay attention to the tone, the volume, the attitude the other cooks display and make sure yours, as a guest in that kitchen, is softer, more polite and clearer than the rest. 

but

never act like you are above anyone. not other cooks, not the pastry department, not prep staff, not dishwashers, not waiters, not bussers, not coat check, not owners. no one. you are above no one. you are a worker among workers. no matter what your title. no matter what it says on your jacket. no matter where you went to school or who you worked for last.

When you first walk into a kitchen, you are humble. You own humility. Look it up. It does not mean you exist only to be humiliated. It does not mean to exude shame. It does not mean you attach a green light to your forehead and affix a sign between your shoulder blades that says, "Step on me. I am a rug you should feel delighted in wiping your muddy feet on. I am a doormat, a stupid rock, a worthless piece of poo."

Being humble means being teachable. It means asking pertinent questions and paying close attention to the answers. It means being quiet and learning by watching before doing. It means being one with your fellows. It does not mean terminally unique. 

being humble
is the opposite of 
feeling entitled.
standing with
is the opposite of
privilege.
acting like a worker among workers
means just that.

I may sound like a Socialist or a Communist or like some hippy radical intellectual academic philosophizing pollyanna. You can call me whatever name you want.

But I've worked in a lot of kitchens.

And I've stepped into even more. 

And I am usually invited back.

Because no matter how many years I've worked, and how many amazing people I have worked with and for, and how many services I've been demolished by, and how many mistakes I've learned from, and how many tears of mine have fallen on the floor-- only to co-mingle with fryer oil food scraps, and no matter how many jobs I haven't gotten, no matter how well I know The Weeds, and no matter how many cuts & burns I've accumulated and patched up on others, and no matter how many times I've packed my knives & said goodbye,

no matter how many,

whether the number be one or too many to want to remember

I remain a worker among workers.

I stand on the same line, on the same side, with.

*

/this post was inspired by these two quotes:

"Why We Do What We Do. It’s about the peo­ple, the places, the peo­ple… Not for­get­ting how to make things, how things are made, who is mak­ing them and why… show­ing it to oth­ers and want­ing to share what we find in the world, it’s about travel and dis­cov­er­ing and learn­ing." ~ Kiosk.

"This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary of answers." ~ Terry Tempest Williams

Shuna Lydon on Martha Stewart Radio Monday April 5th 9:30 am EST

This just in from Martha Stewart Radio ~

"The show will air live—if you have friends or fans who want to listen, they can tune in to Sirius 112/XM 157, or if they don’t have satellite radio, they can listen online by signing up for our free 7 day online listening trial."

Yes, that's tomorrow.

Me, nervous?

Yes.