The Home Chef
When I take a cooking class at the local culinary school the chef-instructors refer to those of us taking the class as “home chefs”. I love that term: it’s both respectful and accurate. Regardless of whether or not I ever go to culinary school I think of myself as a chef and home is where I perfect my craft: I am in the kitchen cooking something nearly constantly (baking bread and roasting spices for garam masala as I type this), I develop recipes, and I have a very discerning palate to please.
I love to cook now, but I never could have guessed as a child that I would consider myself a chef. I read, I danced, and I sang, but I never showed any interest in cooking. In general I eschewed all things domestic, but I my mother and father unknowingly planted the seeds of a future foodie. I remember my dad making lasagnas at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I remember how my mom loved to bake: how sometimes my mom would seem to struggle with what do make for dinner, but we’d have a homemade apple pie for dessert. The first year of college I lived on campus and was subjected to the truly godawful food of the mandatory “meal plan”. I think I subsisted entirely on dinner rolls and Drumsticks until I decided to start cooking my own food in the house kitchens. I started off with boxed dinners and I had a culinary epiphany when I realized that I could make boxed mac & cheese with cream and butter rather than milk and margarine. I then discovered the joy baking with butter (we had been a margarine family growing up) and I think that my fate was sealed. My sophomore year we took advantage of a free grocery store turkey and cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for over 20 people in our small apartment. My junior year we catered an anniversary party for Jeff’s parents and 50 other people entirely by ourselves (Jeff and I). I became obsessed with baking the the perfect chocolate chip cookie and the perfect cinnamon rolls when upper division physics and math classes made it clear that I would never be a perfect physicist. Food became my escape, my “happy place”. Even when the rest of my world seemed to be crashing down upon me I could build up a tiny piece of it by baking a cake.
And so it remains. I had a crappy day today: my RA is acting unpleasantly, I am inexplicably suffering from significant dizziness, it’s so hot in our house I feel like I am melting, and my baby fell asleep like the magic baby he is, but refused to stay asleep for longer than 20 minutes unless he was actively nursing. So what did I do tonight as soon as both kids were asleep…I baked bread, I made up a new batch of garam masala, and I made dinner for tomorrow night (Bangladesh Lentil and Chickpea Stew ready to go in the slow cooker). It’s 11:30 at night and I am still contemplating whether or not to start a batch of pickles. Clearly, I am obsessed with making food. And that’s why I have decided not to be anything more than a fabulous “home chef”. I don’t want to be graded on the weight of my baguettes. I don’t want to work on a restaurant line, chopping bushels of onions to get ahead. I don’t want to come home needing to relax and be so tired of cooking for work that I just get takeout. I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but I am narrowing it down. So while I stress over my career I’ll perfect the perfect vodka sauce And whenever I finally figure it out, I’ll whip myself up a pan of brownies to celebrate.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Yes, I can make a darn good apple pie, deviled eggs, cold macaroni/tuna salad, blueberry pancakes, and a few other dishes. Unfortunately, I love to bake the most, so my meals are not always the healthiest. Right now, I have homemade banana bread in the oven. Of course, I will have to test it after it is done, so I will be sure that it is OK for your Dad when he gets home. ( I bake with butter now, not margarine. It tastes so much “butter”.)
July 30th, 2009 at 7:23 am
The Bannana Bread was just right last night though not as good as Mom wants it, she is going to try another recipe. It was a great desert to our healthy Choice meals we ate last night
I am glad that the seed for cooking was planted. As you know my love of cooking is my relaxation also from work and stress and I think I may just out on the “Mob hits CD” and cook up a big batch of Sauce this weekend and throw so food on the grill. Maybe Saturday night dinner of a penne with arabriati and shrimp and green and red peppers and onions.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:37 am
[...] something when you let it “rest” for a time and then go back and see how it feels. I recently wrote that I had decided that I did not want to be anything more than a home [...]