I had always been slightly informed about just how demanding the culinary industry can be from mentors, peers, books and the like. To know what it is and how it is are two completely different things. When you first start out, you can try to blend two lives together. There's your work life and your outside life. And it does work for a while. But the farther down the rabbit hole you go, the more your outside life fades and your work life is at the forefront. This is not to say that this doesn't happen in other career paths or other peoples lives, but I'm most confident when I say that rarely will you find other industries that demand as much time, attention, and dedication.
Before you assume that I'm bitching about how much I don't get to spend time to myself and what not, allow me to stop you there and reaffirm that I acknowledge this to be a fact and that to be the best and to fully satisfy ones needs to put out a product you can be proud of, theres no choice but to be fully dedicated. Now, while it does sometimes seem overly consuming, it is equally as gratifying to study and be knowledgable on food science and the way foods interact with eachother. If you ask my mom, I never used to study in school. I never thought there was a point to it. Although I would sound cooler at a coffee shop round table talking about history and politics, that wasn't something I necessarily gave two shits about. With food... its just different. For the first time, I'm not learning to try and impress someone or to pass a standardized test. I'm actually anxious to learn for my own betterment and so as not to hit mental road blocks in my everyday work and to be able to experiment. It's in this endless blazing inferno of knowledge that is the culinary world, that I think a lot of my time goes. It might be sitting around with my cook friends with billions of bottles of booze ranting about braising techniques, oven temps and results, types of fish etc.. It could be digesting hours of books that you cant take your eyes away from, or just staying after work off the clock to learn and discuss how to do some shit. One of my best cook friends put it to me this way, "If you really want to cook, be ready to put your head down, not look up and not regret all the things you didn't get to enjoy". It reminds me most of the first time I dove off the board into the deep end of the neighborhood pool. Head first into the deep end trusting that the skills I've learned will bring me up for a breath of air. Triumphant.
I've been happily employed at Stella Sola for about 3 months now. I've learned a great deal about pickling. The possibilites are endless! My favorite thus far is the solution we use for asparagus. I'm not sure that I have it down exactly to the T. But that's the point, you don't have to.
1 bunch Asparagus
3 part white distilled vinegar
2 part water
1 part sugar
black pepper corn
dill
fennel seed
cardomom
jalapenos
shallots
bay leaf
Adjust all spice levels to your taste. Bring all ingredients minus asparagus to a rolling boil. In a deep container with enough head room to cover the asparagus with about 3 inches head room, pour the hot liquid over the asparagus through a china cap or seive to keep out all the used up spices. weight down the asparagus with a few plates or something big and heavy enough to fit in the container and cover up. let it cool down to room temp on its own. done! Makes a dope substitute for pickles on a barbecue plate or use it for whatever.
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