I'm Back!?

It’s been a long time since I’ve done any writing about food and a lot has changed in my life since I last posted on this blog.

During the end of my tenure as the Washington Market School Chess teacher I did a series of trails (visits to a kitchen where one puts in a little work and gets to know the kitchen) at Gramercy Tavern and shortly after the school year I started working there as a cook.

I am now cooking, eating, and thinking about food more than I ever did while I was teaching and still writing here on this site. I suppose my original intention for the website was to act as a type of online resume should I ever decide to stop teaching and get into cooking. It was a way of showing people that despite my having close to no experience cooking (except for a couple of summers grilling burgers) that I was serious about food and maybe even had a little talent at cooking. I certainly had a capacity to think about food.

When I finally found my first food job I no longer needed my blog. And now moving forward when I seek out my next job (still a long ways away) I probably don’t need a website to show that I have some kitchen credentials.

Why then should I take the time to start writing again? When I first started working at Gramercy I intended to keep up with the blog. However, adjusting to a new life and new hours left me completely exhausted and beaten down every day for the better part of two months. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of my own cooking, nor was I dining out a lot, nor war I reading about food. I was pretty much going to work, coming home and sleeping. Also out of respect to my employers and for my own sense of professionalism I told myself that I would never write about restaurant details or life in the kitchen. I feel like there has to be something in a contract about this and even if there isn’t it just feels wrong. These several factors left me with little to no material to write about even if I did want to write.

Seven months later I am more used to the hours and find myself having the time to cook and even have a pretty normal life. My body has changed; kitchen life has caused me to lose weight (my mom tells me I’m wasting away) my knuckles and hands are calloused and I have some burns on my arms though not nearly as many as I thought I would have at this point.

I guess I’m writing again because after the initial body and life shock that I went through from working in a kitchen I’ve built myself back up and feel like I have enough food experiences worth sharing with the rest of the world. The constant prodding from my dad, “you know you should really start writing again, that was a great thing” and hearing from my friends that people actually read the site also helped me motivate.

So while this post is more or less just to catch up with the rest of the world I promise there will be more in the near future.

I would like to add that I am definitely not going to be talking about my life at work, nor will I write any formal restaurant reviews. I’ll probably write smaller type things but I don’t think (at least a this moment ) that I can bring myself to write something wholly negative about the food I eat at a restaurant. After seeing all the hard work that goes into producing a restaurant meal by so many people and after reading reviews of food that I have put out (nothing too scathing yet) it feels a little mean to write a bad review.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll post again soon.