11.11.2006

Insanity or Passion?...


What is this biz? Is it insanity gone mad or controlled organization and passion run amok? What is it that keeps us moving at full throttle at 40k feet, knowing that at any moment we could lose it? Is it the passion to create and cook the best we can for those discerning palates who along with the media can instantly turn your hard work and livelihood into a deathly downward spiral? Is it the self-fulfillment and quest for adrenaline, anxiety and testosterone overload? Who knows...
For some, it is the strong, ever-lasting need to teach, nurture and mentor those under and around you~ to one day take on kitchens of their own.

Being able to watch the growth and talent emerge as it happens. Watching the excitement contagiously spread through the kitchen brigade like wild fires fueled by the Santa Ana winds.



It can certainly be said that the camaraderie, respect and knowledge shared by colleagues is a factor that compels us...brought together by a common understanding and desire, as well as our passions, to connect and learn from those we hold high in regard. It can be truly rewarding and gratifying to log time with the true craftsman and women in this biz, watching, sharing, conversing, exchanging and collaborating of thoughts. Seeing the evolvement of food become more that you had imagined.

One discipline suggests that it is a form of expression... so personal... so distinct... so exhausting... that at times you have to ask yourself; why do you do this?...but at the end of the day, after long hard hours of blood, sweat, and tears...you know why~ because there is simply nothing else that drives you the way this does, and therefore, what else could there be to do?


Then of course, there is the final product. An end product that has transpired into an extension of your expressions. A culmination of thoughts, ideas and techniques, provoked by the absurd, the gifts of the earth, the weather, the stress, the utter rebelliousness to push the limits beyond what can be done and to a level that is perhaps unachievable-all fostering the notion that it is all about one thing...the ingredients!

It can be driven by a severe forward movement that has become unstoppable! A force so strong and full of pressure, that at times seems bigger than you are, larger than life- monstrous, like a sunami of cooks and food that has been in incubation during the long road to where you are today, then like in tidal motions, just unleashes itself into this movement. So, you kick your own ass and everyone's around, step it up, get focused and take control or die. It is that simple. You can not let the ship go down!

As we dig deep in our hearts and souls, we search for the real reason we continue on this destructive path to insanity. We love it. We are drawn to it-emotionally, physically, mentally and perhaps spiritually. It can be a spark early on in our career- ignited by a thought, a book, a compliment or advice and influence of a great master, who for the rest of our numbered days, we will for ever strive to be.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Great Job!

Ed J.

4:13:00 PM  

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