Out of the Pan and into the Fire

Before we get rolling here at the Kitchen Diaries, I thought I'd lay down a simple fact. I never had aspirations to cook for a living. Being raised on the living a waitress could provide, I despised the idea of working in anything resembling food service.

Nor did previous jobs as a dishwasher/grunt at truck stops and mom 'n pop eateries as a kid engender me to the food service industry.

And honestly, I seriously doubt that it occurred to anyone in my family that restaurant work was something someone would aspire to. That's just something you do to get through college and become something more important, like a doctor. Right?

Yet, somehow, at the age of 32 I find myself standing behind a restaurant stove around fifty hours a week and despite it being an exhausting experience that even takes up some of my time outside the restaurant (and despite all my grumblings and complaints during a service shift) I find I really enjoy my work.

It's tiring, it's sweaty, I often come close to slicing my fingers off or burning the hell out of myself once a week or so and the customers can be real pains in the ass; but I realize why I love it when I nail that new recipe or complete a non-stop, fast paced service successfully.

While I'm getting stuff out of the way. Let me be truthful about something else. I'm not a culinary school graduate. I haven't spent twenty years in the biz. I've worked about six years total in restaurants. Two of those were as a dishwasher and two others were in establishments ran by my family.

Only the last two have been in fine dining or even as a chef.

Luckily for me. I've managed to work the last few years for chefs that are willing to teach. (My current boss is even opposed to culinary school, believing that it's silly to pay to learn when you can get paid.)

All this said, I know there's still a lot for me to learn. I don't have the answers to everything food related and don't want anyone to get the impression that I think I do.

What I do know, I'll share. What I don't know, I'll look up.

My real goal here is to share what I love with others and perhaps encourage them to love it as well.