[After a burst of writing last week this is my first entry in several days. Just feel like writing about what's going down in my life right now. I haven't had a paying gig in four weeks now. Totally running on fumes. I've been here before but that doesn't make it suck any less, Ha! Interviewed two weeks ago at a local food service management company for a position running 2 corporate kitchens. Can't really say for who exactly for some reason. Did a follow-up call last week and evidently they are in the weeds and dragging their feet with the hiring process. I don't have a great feeling about it but it would be nice to pick up a paycheck for a while. One thing the first interviewer asked me really pissed me off. Fondling my resume she looks up and asks me, "What does Matt want to be when he grows up?" Reflexively I shot her a look that could melt steel and she back-pedaled, "What I mean to say is, 'Where do you see yourself in 10 years?'" Fucking corporate bullshit. Kiss my ass bitch. What do I want to be when I grow up? I've been working in the professional kitchen for almost half of my life. I've got a degree in culinary arts, cooked for Presidents, Rock Stars, Movie Stars, Royalty. You're not too fucking smart are you, bitch? I'm a fucking CHEF. How'd that get past you? I didn't say any of this of course. I just breathed and said I want to have my own business operating a small restaurant. What was I supposed to say? Oh, I really want to be a fucking cog in the corporate machine for the rest of my life. Yeah...that'd be real nice. I felt like asking her what she had wanted to be when she grew up. Did she see herself working for some no name food service company in Columbia-fucking-South Carolina? Was that HER big dream? Hahahaha! I can be such a prick. Thankfully she excused herself and round two of the interview involved talking to the corporate chef. He was a pretty cool cat. Kitchen people I can get down with. Office tools? Not so much.
Long story short I'm not holding my breath. I've been waiting until after the holidays to make this phone call that I made today. Called up one of my mentors, the man who introduced me to the real world of professional cooking. I won't use his name but he cut his teeth in the culinary world at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, WV. It's one of the most fabled hotels in the country and one of the best in the world. If you haven't heard of it look it up. Knowing chefs as I do I didn't want to call during the holidays to inquire about employment. That shit is just not cool. Second week after the new year though? Perfect time. Holidays are over and he'd just be beginning to think about hiring for the summer season. I got bounced around to several different phones at the resort. The last one was the host stand in the main dining room and the lady there was kind enough to go get Chef for me. I've been keeping in touch with this guy for 15 years, just touching base every year or two. In 2005 I even went and had dinner at the summer season dining room where I had worked for him in 1995. I brought along a date on that WV trip (which is a completely different story!) He came out to the table and we chatted for a bit. He was genuinely happy to see me (which is saying a lot because his personality is very, very reserved) he was also impressed with my dining companion. She was a knockout, tall, blonde, sharply dressed. I made a good impression on him for seeing him for the first time in ten years. When he knew me back then I was just a young punk line cook. I had some raw skills, some natural talent but not a whole lot of focus. He helped supply me with that focus. He brought the world of professional cooking into my field of view. Previously I had worked in a handful of so-so restaurants in my hometown of Columbia. When I first interviewed with him he was sitting in his tiny chef's office. (Chefs have THE tiniest offices imaginable. Honestly, they are the size of a closet.) On the wall hung awards and photographs of places he had worked, famous people he had cooked for, plaques and trophies and the accoutrement of a life spent immersed in all things culinary. He was a member of the ACF (American Culinary Federation) and competed in cooking competitions and such. He put a menu in my hands and asked me if I could cook it. Point blank. No bullshit. I looked it over and recognized a few dishes but lots of words seemed to be written in Greek. (It was French, of course.) I gave him an honest answer. I said that I could cook some of the dishes but that others I would need to be taught. He was brow-beating me and I knew it, trying to knock down that young punk arrogance I carried. It worked. He gave me a job and I learned more from him in 4 months than I had learned in the previous 5 years combined.
We had a great chat on the phone today. I could tell there was admiration in his voice. I had kept him up-to-date with my culinary adventures and never failed to give him credit for turning me on to the culinary world, to the dazzling, dynamic, insane world of professional cooking. Before we hung up he said he was sure he'd have a job for me. The guy who had been his sous chef at the summer season dining room wasn't returning this year. I told him I'd touch base with him again soon. Thanked him for his time and told him I'd e-mail my resume. A ten minute conversation but a very important one to me. Moving to WV hinges largely on my ability to find gainful employment. It's looking very much like today I did just that. Only time will tell...a few more months, a matter of weeks really. I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch but I am excited. I am hopeful. And that's an enormous change from the way I've been feeling lately.
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