Marigold doesn’t have time to marigold- she is too busy to be inspired to critique the culture around her.  She doesn’t have time to experience the world about, she doesn’t have the energy to dissect what people do and why.  She doesn’t have time to  document her desserts, she doesn’t have time to digest her visions.

Instead, I will tell a tale of what the restaurant life is really about, to dissipate these dramatic TV renditions of what a life of a chef is all about.  Yes there is drama, but it’s mostly because we are cranky, tired, hungry, without a break insight, with your co-workers nonstop, stressed out.  No I cannot make plans, no I cannot see friends, yes I might have to miss that thing that I promised I would do.  It’s not this high stake game all the time- mostly we are weary, just plain old tired and overworked, afraid that you are not going to make it through the week, let alone the next day.  I currently work 14 hour days with no breaks, eat one meal that consists of a hot dog over a trash can, tediously try and retry menu items while working in a 110 plus degree kitchen.  There is no dishwasher, so after you make a mess, you clean it, and after you feed the staff, you clean after them, and after you do multiple mock services, you stay and clean all the dishes- mop the floor, take out the trash, make your list for tomorrow, order your products, shot gun a beer before you ride your bike home to rest for a few fleeting hours.

I have had two days off in the last two weeks, and since opening day is tomorrow, and I can honestly say that I do not know when my next day off will be.  It might be a month- that is a real possibility.

So for now, I will give you pieces of the pent up life, when I am not too tired to write a few words.  Once the ship has set its course, you will see pictures, hear descriptions, maybe happen up a poem.  I have worked very hard for this, now is not the time to change my mind, seek something easier, try to become a secretary.

In the fury that is the task of opening a new restaurant, after the conception and the deliberations and the racking of the mind for ideas, inspiration, a sense of uniqueness in an over saturated environment; after consulting everything we know and revisiting everything we once knew, after revisiting standards and questioning impulses;  first we put the kitchen all together, organize everything to a T, label and assess where things belong in this newly constructed world, create a fluid flow to the work day, source all the products, assemble all the ingredients, cook all the food, prep every single component, label and date it all, store it- then, just then, at this highly anticipated point, we take it all down for inspections, to be granted by the city,  all the powers of all the codes and all the clusters of councils to be cleared for the very important business of feeding people.

All of it, the kitchen was reverted to an empty space, a free space waiting to be filled with hot bodies, passionate smells, cold focus.

After two weeks of crickets, we build it back up again.  Everything must find its place again, everything must be rearranged and organized and labeled before we can even think about cooking.  Supplies must be reordered, prep sheets reprinted, everything soaped clean again.

A white sheet, a blank canvas is daunting once you had already painted the picture.  You know the steps in store just to prepare, just to get set up- we literally just did it.  After we do it again, then we will do it again, and then, God willing, we might actually start serving people.

A special treat for a special birthday,

a traditional dessert item transformed into a plated dessert.

Full of the glory of the time,

Limited to those who’s bithday falls in this season.

A month from now, the dish will take on a new shape,

But for now a special treat for a special day.

Water is so heavy yet makes you feel so light

Air is so light, but without it you feel so heavy.

Irony is not a human trait, it is embodied in nature.

We are reflections of circumstance

We are creatures of habitat.