A CHEF’S TALE

As I am passionate with writing, the other thing that would take most of my time from everything is the kitchen. While I sit, space out, and procrastinate when writing, I can totally stand in the kitchen for more than 10 hours, cooking and going through the frozen meats and planning a full family meal in the coming days. By the end of an odd day where I haven’t cooked anything, my hands tremble with the desire to chop garlic and onions and sweat them in a sauté pan. Ignore what you see on TV, real chefs have long, taxing hours day in and day out and come home reeking from anything from smoke, to fish to horseradish. You would be lucky if he/she comes to you and they smell like vanilla, strawberry, or mocha after a full shift in the pantry and desserts section. 

Whenever people find out about my knowledge on the culinary arts, they always say just about the same thing, “Oh, your family’s lucky!” or “It must be sumptuous to have a professional cook in the house all the time!” Haha, but this is far from truth. Why? Because a restaurant kitchen is more exciting to cook and experiment in because of their unconventional gizmos that we don’t have or can’t fit in our home kitchen. Chefs are very passionate about food and its presentation and they’re very serious about it. If I am requested to cook a simple meal, but I find that there are lacking ingredients, I would be disappointed. My parents would always note about how the grocery bill seemed to be much higher than if they did it themselves. Yes, we must buy that lavish carton of French cream and no, we cannot substitute; and that applies for every essential ingredient. Forget about the home budget for a while when we know that we can afford it, because when we cook for you, we are expressing our love. You will eat some of your richest, most scrumptious meals with us when we actually do some grocery shopping and (rarely) cook at home that will make you forget about the price of the organic vegetables. For me, it is not only about presentation. If a food looks delectable then I would expect that my taste buds would be pleased as well. I’ve returned steaks that were not cooked medium-well as requested and thrown dry cupcakes that looked so fancy on the bakery shelves, but tasted like cardboard.

They say everyone can cook, yes, I agree, but I also believe that someone who understands food is parallel to knowing how to love with devotion. This is not a job for the faint-hearted and passionless, it is for the one who truly loves his/her craft and lives and breathes for it. Our significant other should be equally up for the kitchen-venture too, otherwise, if you prefer to stick with the conventional fast food choices then we would definitely have something to debate on. Cooks show their emotions through food and is sometimes used as a deadly weapon (tee-hee) to charm you while you sit and marinate your thoughts on the possibility of having a relationship with one. We do know that oftentimes that your stomach is our meal ticket to your heart, but should you consider being with a chef, here’s a big tip: you should definitely love to eat… a lot!