“A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from those who teach him, protect him, lead him, without him and help him along the way. Only then can one come to know right from wrong and right from wrong. That is knowledge that only experience can impart. Others will impart it, but they will teach you from their own premises. They will lead you by example, from building a business to running it. You can’t get that kind of experience from cookbooks or on the internet. It’s a matter of personal choice and example.
When I started my retail career as a teenager, I had just graduated from selling soft drinks in Gastropubs to selling bottled drinks in defined quantities. I was happy, but not contented. Parties and alcohol, the usual places for me were different from that of my friends. My friends were always cool, hip, sophisticated and worldly. They knew how to have fun. They understood the music, but they didn’t understand why I selling alcohol. I sold because I enjoyed it, up to a point. I sold because I had to, because I had to please someone, and there was nothing I could do about it but sell. So, at twenty-year old, I took a job to help pay for my living and for my education. I worked hard and served the customers, but I didn’t like the lifestyle. I wanted to be happy, gourmet, classy, at the top of the world, but I didn’t have a clue how to go about it.
I did some research and found that there are now many ways to go about becoming a chef, and I learned about corporate catering, weddings, corporate events, government service, individual guests, and industrial, but none of those seemed like a good fit for me. My heart was set on this job, I knew it, but I still had no idea how to go about it. How to make coffee in a world where there is so much competition? How to organize a bake sale in a world where people would be blessing and curse the baker on the day of the event? These were not problems I had to face, I knew the market, I knew how to make money, I knew where to go.
That made the decision to enter the food service industry as a chef for a restaurant manager in Las Vegas of all places, a career I knew nothing about. The restaurant manager, world, I mean, region, I’m no expert on. But that world did nothing but make me a slave to their lifestyles. Nothing but pain, suffering, disappointment. Food, that is the common ground of all cultures. We share food, we share space, we share the ground we stand on together. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the buildings we live in, all stem from the food we eat. Food has created our city, our country, our mall, our school, our friends, our family, our community, and our entire continent.
So if you’re reading this article I want to talk to you about food, and it’s absence from our everyday lives. Not just the kind of food you eat, but the kind of mind we are living in. The standard by which we measure success is not just the abundance of taste bud sensations, or the contentment we feel when we enjoy the company of those we care about. The kind of mind is the basis for all the activities we do, so much so that without it, we can’t function. So much so that we are missing out on the connection our senses are normally exposed to.
I had a great Thanksgiving meal the other day with some friends, and it was a delight. Not just the food, but the conversation as well. We paced the mall together, discussing the issues of the day. Indeed, the turkey breast didn’t take long to cook, and the cranberries were delicious. But that’s where the similarities ended. While I enjoyed the turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, salad, green beans and cauliflower satisfied my sister. My sister thought everything was about her politics, but everything else she brought was a giggle. About the size of her waist, she couldn’t help but say “you are so much older than you”. I decided to press her case, but she kindly told me the contents of her lunch box were her own special things, and not really any more political.
This made me think back to brunch, when those humble eggs and sausage were cooked in a buttery broth, and covered with maple syrup from a fancy fortified with leave of maple. And perhaps it was then I felt Young attributable to her.
So much for shrewd career planning.
