The Taste of Transition

The Taste of Transition

I am sure that the taste of change for most of us is a bitter one. Old friends and people we love have to be left behind, and now we must search for new ones. Searching, finding, challenging ourselves, so much energy spent for something that we all ready had. Why do it, why become new, refreshed, or at the very least refurbished? Some of us are creatures of comfort, some creatures of conformity, and some try not conform to the comfort.

I am a chef, and if you are reading this, there is a good chance that you maybe as well. I would like to say that we are a strange breed, but I will use the word unique to describe us. I cannot speak for us all, that would just be selfish and wrong, but I can speak for myself on the matter of this profession. In the very least it is a jealous profession, one that will not give back unless you are willing to give all. It’s a frightening thing for most, we have been taught our entire lives to separate work from life. "Leave it in the office", just does now work for me in the "cheffing" business.

I have chosen another path, not to bring work home with me, but to bring life to work. Never leave either, be who I am at all times. Behind the counter, behind the couch, in front of my wife, in front of the owners. Michael Ruhlman wrote one of my favorite quotes of all time… "It's all one thing". I have to agree and in my mind it spans so much more than that of the culinary world, but that is another topic.

The blog I have decided to start here is a result of a new move in my life, and one that I am very excited about. This will be catalog, journal, slide show, or what have you of my transition, beginning, journey, and life at my new place of employment. I am making the move from pastry chef for the Michael Symon Restaurant Group (a company filled with people whom I love and am forever grateful for all of the hard work that they put in day to day), to the pastry chef position at The Herbfarm (the highly celebrated "locavore" restaurant in Woodinville, WA). The change is one that I am looking nervously forward too, and relish the thought of new desserts and new ideas.

It should be a blast.