Cooking

While in Temecula this weekend, I raided my host's library for something to read and came across Michael Ruhlman's "The Making Of A Chef."

The author attended the CIA - that's the Culinary Institute of America - in order to write a book about what it takes to become a professional chef. It opens with him straddling his worlds - one foot working on this book and the other attending three weeks of Skills classes. This section is fascinating if you are interested in cooking or ever wondered just what was happening behind the scenes at a "nice" restaurant.

Sadly, he abandons the normal class track after this three-week block to flit about the rest of the curriculum - the part of the book I'm reading now - and it becomes instantly less interesting. The book goes from autobiography to documentary across two pages. Ruhlman spends much of the first part of the book mildly complaining that he isn't taken seriously by his fellow students - and then, 100 pages in, verifies their gripes by jumping in and out of courses whenever he felt like it - a day here, two days there, la la la, isn't this fun! I wonder how much better the book would have been had he stayed the course of the entire curriculum.

I have learned that I have zero interest in becoming a chef. I like to cook - but I don't think I'd enjoy making umpteen plates of tonight's special, and oh by the way, it has to be perfect, and hurry up, they are done with the soup and are ready for the main course and they're in a hurry, they've got tickets to La Boheme (it's an opera you uncultured sweat monkey, where's my food!) etcetera etcetera etcetera

Boy am I full of news tonight. As you can see, Katy left me at home alone with the computer again.