The following piece contains content that may not be suitable for either children or my parents.
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As we sat in the dark of the theatre, he rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb. I felt him move into a steady rhythm until he reached the fresh scar parallel with my middle knuckle. He pressed [read more ...]
On Wednesday, I forgot my pants.
That is, I forgot my standard-issue checkered chef’s pants. I live in those things – between work and school, I spend more time in uniform than anything else (Including, maybe even, underwear), and I usually have at least one change of clothes on my person at all times (I keep [read more ...]
There are a lot of things I’ve done that I swore I never would, and while I find them all to be generally naughtily enjoyable, none is so satisfying, so deeply comforting as eating meat.
I was a vegetarian for seven years, and during that time, I ate tofu, wrote impassioned pieces on both the benefits [read more ...]
When I think about him lately, I think most about the way he’d react when I said something of note. He’d raise his eyebrows and say “No shit!” in a tone that was as if he was saying something else, as if he was saying: “I think that is the most brilliant thing I’ve ever [read more ...]
I made pate a choux for my family this weekend to demonstrate my newfound culinary chops – and because two pies and candied pecans weren’t enough to sate my sweet tooth. Using the French Culinary Institute’s Level Three recipe as a guide, I added cinnamon to the choux paste and substituted Kahlua-drenched pastry cream for [read more ...]
I knew that the first thing I’d do in Syracuse was go to Wegmans. I was right.
I was a little nervous about driving a car for the first time in six months (would I remember how?), but I needed supplies – I needed to bake an apple tart, I needed Brussels sprouts, I needed pumpkin [read more ...]
I wake up at 5:25 to the alarm clock ringing. I lunge for it and press the snooze button. I knew I would; in fact, I’ve set it five minutes early on purpose. The extra sleep feels like a gift, a treat. At 5:30, it sounds again and this time I turn it off and [read more ...]
I needed to quickly sharpen my santoku in the midst of chopping shallots at work the other day. I’d forgotten my steel at home, and when I grabbed the kitchen’s, I was taken aback by the shape. Mine was round, but this one was flat. I’d never used a flat steel before, and I didn’t [read more ...]
“Eee-hee-hee-hee,” I said, watching Mark gently push pig intestine over the spout of the sausage machine. I’d never used real casing before, and I was surprised at how filmy yet durable it looked. It looked like a gigantic condom, and the machine looked like … well, you can use your imagination.
“Wow, Mark,” Dan said. “You’re [read more ...]
I was charring peppers on the grill at work on Friday, talking to my chef as he cleaned chanterelle mushrooms. Fridays are slow for us – they’re typically spent cleaning up the mess of the past week, readying for the coming one.
“I don’t know, man,” he said, peeling back the stem with a paring knife. [read more ...]
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