Learning to cook at an early age afforded me opportunities that would have otherwise not been available; Grill at Jack in the Box; Grill at the ski lodge with room and board and free lift pass, eventually shift manager, not to mention wages as good or better than anyone working in ‘flatland’. Assistant cook at the college cafeteria, which led to breakfast cook. Assistant dinner cook led to a job in the San Juan Islands where I leaned quite a bit more about preparing fine food. After that summer I became weekend Manager at the college cafeteria, which once again had better pay and benefits than most other jobs in a college town. Our food unit cook was really good and I also leaned a lot from him. When I asked him why he didn’t work in a fine restaurant, he told me, “I don’t want the late hours.”
Shows like ‘Iron Chef’ or ‘BBQ USA’ are some of my favorites for inspiration. Most Indian restaurants around here have begun serving pre-prepared cafeteria fare, and I have yet to figure out where they are getting it from. It’s mediocre at best, so most Indian style food that we eat I prepare at home. My Saag Paneer was better than most places before they went bad, but a lot of my cooking is to make up for deficiencies in what’s available out, after they begin to fail.
Making pastrami and bacon at home is definitely an art for me. I’ve been fermenting my own hot sauce for quite some time now, but I haven’t made kimchee yet.
I worked my way through college in restaurants and bars.
In the end I had worked most restaurant jobs that were not a lead chef or managing. I have a lot of respect for both good chefs and good restaurant managers. Managing a restaurant can be a tough and low-margin job, and based on how flaky some other kitchen staff can be I am amazed chefs don’t just start murdering people. Well, more often anyway
I enjoyed working out front more than cooking, usually waiting tables. That can actually be serious cheddar for a college kid once you get to fine dining.
Interesting to hear that about Indian restaurants. I really have to be in the right mood to eat Indian food, but maybe I’d be more into it if it was from a place that prepared it properly.
Another one of my creative hobbies is fantasy map making. I created a giant world for the novel I’m working on using Inkarnate. This sight is great for other things too. See my post here in Goals
I am hooked on the Vivaldi short videos. My Dad was a cook on the last wooden deck aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy. Not sure what his MOS battle station was but my Mom’s meals had the neighborhood hanging outside for a meal. Dad would oc asionally open up some canned goods but that was about it.
We had a pretty big garden and delivered shopping bags full of veggies and one woman always had fresh Greek bread for us.
I have in the last couple of years begun learning my way around the kitchen and can put basic fare together. I am doing Swedish meatball dinner tomorrow if all goes well. If steak prices get lower I can start on those again. Cast iron for the steaks.
You definitely need to be in the mood for spice. The frozen entrees at Trader Joes are good, so if your restaurant isn’t better than that, it’s pre-prepared. Trader Joes tends to source really good quality, so their Chicken Tikka Masala starts better.
Lamb Korma and Goat Curry are two dishes that don’t come pre-prepared, so if your restaurant has those, they’re not reheating frozen.
I just picked up 6lbs of pork belly at Costco this afternoon for tomorrow. I’m not sure what I’m doing with it yet, usually I go sweet but I’m wanting to try herbaceous and savory this time.
Kimchi is pretty easy. I have made sauerkraut before, and kimchi is basically the same thing with a few more steps and ingredients. Mine is strictly financial, since a small quart jar of kimchi is like $6, but I can make roughly a gallon for that. A jar only lasts like a week, but I can get like 4 weeks for the same price. I definitely just use green cabbage, hard to find a lot of napa here.
I got the strips of pork belly w/o skin so I can’t roll it up and tie it but I definitely think I’m going to try and do something Porchetta inspired (pork belly got moved to tomorrow so that I can babysit the smoker for 6 hrs). Thank you for the suggestion. I also think I’m going to do a sweet glaze on it with some apple cider vinegar and hot honey to give it a little zing.
I hear ya! First time I made red curry at home the tiny little jar of curry paste at the grocery store was almost five bucks. I can get a tub that’s nearly two pounds at the restraunt supply store for six bucks. They have yellow, red and green, but no Massaman, so I make my own.
I have access to veggies, pretty good ones mostly. Just not very diverse in some areas. I can get napa cabbage but it’s like 5x more money. If I was more picky, I would pay for it, but this is about making a month’s worth of food cheap and easy.
