Yesterday I found Frieda had vomited on my desk and keyboard. The keyboard wouldn't work after I cleaned up the mess, so I had no access to this site, other than my phone which I don't like to use for this. I was able to get a new keyboard the same day, so by evening it arrived and here I am. The things we grow dependent on. My laptop died last month and I've chosen to not replace it. I really don't need it.
We, as it seems much of the country is, are getting a lot of snow. Not what Buffalo got a week ago, but about 7". Not feet! Snow is much nicer to look at. The drab grey we have had since the melt last week was depressing. I will actually need to plow.
I know I have said my son is a chef and I know that word has become casually used to describe a good cook. My son is a chef. He worked in fine dining with the brigade de cuisine system for the first 25 years of his career. He started as a sixteen year old as a dishwasher at Pizza restaurant. When he went to Bemidji for his sophomore year of college he started working in a new fine dining restaurant as a line cook. He got hooked on it, I know not why. When he returned to St. Paul he got a job which altered his life, an ambitious head chef who saw something in him and brought him up the stations. He became the Sous Chef to this future James Beard award winner and his Chef de Cuisine in the restaurant the chef eventually owned. It's a hard way to earn a living, the hours are grueling and the work is hot and hard on the body. A few years ago he left fine dining and went to gastro pubs. After the pandemic, when he didn't have work, he decided he wasn't doing management anymore, he wanted to be an hourly employee with set hours and days off. He has a job at a chi chi hotel in Minneapolis that he really likes. With his background he is a desirable employee. He is in charge of breakfast and lunch service and then he is done. He is enjoying this. So, my explanation of my very smart son who decided to work in a professional kitchen, because....? Passion, I guess.
Now onto another topic involving young men. This truck. A 1997 one ton Chevy diesel dually used primarily for pulling my horse trailer back in the day. It's also used for picking up large loads like grain, pellets, etc. All the years out here we always had three vehicles, my Jeep, Mark's car and the truck. We gave Bill the Jeep early this year. The truck has been going on the road a little more and stopping for fuel or in a parking lot, young men lust over it. Seriously. I don't think any man ever looked at me the way they look at the beast. I guess this is now considered classic by the twenty-somethings and they get bright-eyed looking at it. I own something young men want!
Mark is taking his CPE course today and tomorrow and I get the fun task of sitting at his desk when he needs to be away from it for a bit. I have to click the icon that periodically appears to show you are in attendance. His work would bore me into a coma. I just spent some time with it. Good god.
I think I'll stop before I go onto some other thrilling topic. So happy to have a keyboard!
12 comments:
I agree that the term chef is used a bit loosely. Your son is the real thing. I don't blame him for getting out of the 24/7 of running a high end restaurant though. It sounds as if he's hit on the right mix now.
About trucks and boys, also some girls like my blonde glam neighbor, yes, unaccountable, but true. Karen is mad for vehicles, can go on about them. Not to me, she knows I can hardly tell one from another, including trying to unlock the wrong one in parking lots.
Boud, yes. That's why I felt the need to clarify that he is an actual chef. Mark would use that term with me and I finally got him to stop. I'm an accomplished home cook. I am NOT a chef. He likes his life right now, a much better mix of work and down time.
I had a guy at the liquor store, an older guy, who carried out my purchases say "isn't that a lot of truck for a little lady?" Not if the little lady wants to pull a large horse trailer, said I. Honestly.
What a smart man your son is, he is doing what he loves and can still have a life! I have a friend whose daughter aspired to be a chef but the pressure and the hours of work were too much for her.
Take Care,
Kaye
Ahh! Foodies and chefdom. Your son has had quite a career!!! My Mom was a chef in a couple of restaurants around Chautauqua Lake and indeed....it was hard work. Our oldest daughter worked at a fabulous restaurant in Manhattan...Rusty's At The Plate. Top 10 wine list, owed by a retired pro baseball player Rusty Staub.
She ended up managing it while she was still in her 20s and it was a fabulous experience. I loved driving a truck and did a lot of trailering for myself and others. Now we have neither and don't get off the property with the horses. Back in the day I used to trailer to a town about 30 miles from here at least 2 or 3 times a month for dressage lessons. When we built the indoor, we would hold clinics here. My life has slowed down so much. Good news about your keyboard. You need a newspaper column.....I would read it every day! Oops. I do read you everyday!
It's good the know that there are options for chefs, besides spending the rest of their days, killing themselves in a kitchen.
I don't get guys and vehicles either.
Interesting about your son and his adventures with food. If you are JUST an accomplished home cook I am surprised as everything you cook seems gourmet to me:)
I have to agree that you are an accomplished cook.
My neighbor friend Olive, went to Culinary School and worked in restaurants in Europe as she traveled. She too found the pressure pretty tough.
Your son has really had an interesting career! It seems that he has found a good balance now.
Kaye, it is a very hard job which has been glorified by celebrity chefs. He has had a good career and now he likes the softer landing! He likes this job.
Lori, you have personal experience with that lifestyle. Which is no lifestyle at all! That would be very exciting to be in Manhattan managing an acclaimed restaurant. To have that in her 20s...wow!
We still need the truck, not a truck that size but we have it. The cost of diesel is crazy, though. I still have my trailer but it hasn't moved from it's spots in years. My halter horses were shown by the trainer so transported by the training barn. I had a different dressage trainer and I did the hauling for those shows and clinics. Those were the days! Not a chance I'd be hauling anymore.
I couldn't stand the pressure of a column!!
Pixie, he at least found something that works for him. He thought he'd leave the industry after cover but he wanted to stay. Just differently.
I've had to look at my old truck differently since young men are so taken with her!
Far Side, I gave up gourmet at about the time I gave up Italian pumps for work boots! But, thank you.
Val, Olive got some of the fun part of the work. It's ok in the 20s but it does not allow much of a life. Now you get the benefit of having her as your neighbor!
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