#40 - 22 February 2009 - "The Second Half."

Note to blog readers: If it sounded like I was melodramatic (or melancholy) about my first month as stagier at TFL, I must say that it's the second half that matters the most. The lessons learned from the first four weeks (again, like combatants on sporting fields) will determine the successes in "the second half" - the last four weeks.

This sabbatical and stage is about staying current. I remember reading a quote from TFL-alumnus and current chef/owner of Alinea (Chicago, Illinois) Grant Achatz, who roughly stated that "wouldn't it be great if all we had to do every day was to play and experiment with food?" Ferran Adria and company famously spend up to six-months every year travelling and experimenting in preparation to promote new technologies and advanced methods and techniques at the cutting-edge elBulli in Roses, Spain. Eventually, you have to get back into the kitchen and cook - you gotta pay the bills eventually. So, how do we, the non-super heroes and earth-dwellers, stay current?

When I started in this business in 1974 the American restaurant and culinary scene was dominated by European chefs that hopped across the pond and established French-influenced bastions of haute cuisine. The French ruled the American dining menu. In 1971 Alice Waters turned the toque-topped chefdom on its culinary ear when she and friends opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. Her influence was in the small French inns and country-side bistros with attached gardens that foraged for local product. Chez Panisse became a restaurant that operated like a dinner party at your home. It was comfortable, they cooked good food and they required local, sustainable, organic, wholesome and fresh product. Simple recipe for success.

Fast-forward into the 21st century and modern technology has penetrated into the heart of kitchens from The Fat Duck to The French Laundry. The jars of salts and peppers above the Garde Manger at TFL sit akin to Simpless, Maltodextrin and Methyl-Glucose. Top Chefs today are well versed in international products, natural-occurring chemicals and cutting-edge technologies in order to craft menus and diners for the now-contemporary dining client. Our industry has become much more sophisticated as has our clientele. Moms, Dads, kids, couples, singles, etc., all have the ability to log onto the internet, find their niche recipes and methods and recreate some of the best food in the world. The onslaught of food network and food travel television programs can take that same population from across Europe to Down Under and the Pacific Rim all before dinner is prepared and set upon the dining room table... Yet, we still need to cook with our souls, not soullessly cook for notoriety or fame.

So, how do you (we) stay current? It really doesn't matter how - to borrow a phrase from Nike - just do it. Television, newspapers and trade publications, dining out, talking amongst yourselves, the internet - these are ways that do not require attaining a sabbatical of applying for a stage. Consider the money that is invested in a stage from some far-way Northern Scandinavian country like...Sweden. It is five figures, minimum. Travel, loss of income while away from the old country, expenditures in rent and food - they all add up. So, thank be for the efforts of the apprentices, stages, and externs at restaurants across the land. The symbiotic relationship is keen, indeed, between "free labor" that has a meaningful opportunity to learn and contribute and the upper-echelon Valhallas that require intense efforts from the future of the labor pool. Some of this kitchen work might not be getting done without those individuals...

Take notes. Take pictures. Ask questions. Discuss possibilities. Engage yourself with icons and fry cooks, alike. You might even get fed in the process. Peace.

~R