ignorance is stupid.

“what do your parents do?”  it was an innocent question i’d ask my friends in elementary school.  i knew the answer on my end and i had it memorized.  my mother was a lawyer.  my father worked in international public health.  i was capable of elaboration if i deemed it necessary in any given situation.
but [...]

time zones.

i currently exist in my own time zone.  i live in my parents’ home, drive their car, eat their food…and yet i haven’t seen my mom or dad in over a week.
i get home after they’ve gone to sleep.  i wake up after they’ve left for work.  i see evidence of their daily existence: my [...]

fucking new guy.

G. complained on thursday that he’d been at work since 10am. “i’m a fucking senior captain,” he said as he pounded the bar, “i should be sleeping now…those FNGs should be here.”
FNG? “fucking new guys,” he explained. i bent my head and continued finely chopping chives, quickly counting in my head exactly [...]

all the world’s a stage.

 
 
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances…
every day i walk into the restaurant in my street clothes. a pair of flip flops, jeans, a tank top. whatever i happen to throw on in the morning. i walk through the kitchen, down [...]

jean-georges and me.

i walked into the kitchen, knife bag in hand.  i was in the fucking JG kitchen.  who the hell was i?  no culinary training, hardly any experience, and rapidly diminishing confidence.   JG is a world-renowned, Michelin starred, master chef.  but i sucked it up, pretended i fit in, and shook the sous chef’s hand.  [...]

ffilms, fffilms, and ffffilms.

ffilms (aka food films, not to be confused with jasper fforde) are great. they can be funny, informative, and political. they can be serious or lighthearted. but all the ffilms i saw on friday were non-fiction. real food, real farms, real live people.
while working out this morning (gasp!) i saw commercials [...]

deep clean sunday.

there was a lot of time to talk at the restaurant tonight.
“yo, show me your socks.” E. pulls up his pants to reveal his spiral-striped green and yellow socks as he asks to see mine. there’s a sock contest going on, he explains. 1 point for weekdays, 2 on fridays, 3 on [...]

ffilms.

i read about food. i write about food. i shop for food. i photograph food. i cook food. i bake food. i saute food. hell, i even eat food.
but today i watched food. i went to a sneak preview of the first annual food film festival co-sponsored by the James Beard Foundation. [...]

when it rains, it pours.

if only life were always this bountiful…
last sunday i trailed at eleven madison park.
this sunday i trailed at bouchon bakery and was was offered the job.
yesterday i trailed at another restaurant and was offered the job.
today i was offered an interview/trail at JEAN GEORGES!!!!! (emphasis added).
so for a few brief hours today i abandoned my [...]

i got ANOTHER job

crazy day, but i’ll try to tone it down (for danny’s sake).
1. the tools
i bought my first set of knives today. a daunting task: which do i buy? size? brand? material? i zeroed in on victorinox knives. an 8″ chef’s, a bread knife, a paring knife. then i bought a vegetable [...]