Intro

Okay, so this will be the first post to hopefully many more to come. I've just moved here to NYC last saturday. Not knowing many people (like 2) and is just by myself here. So I figure why not start doing something somewhat productive with my freetime and write about something. I thought hey! why not about write about my job, give the world a little bit of a view into what goes on behind the kitchen, and what a cook goes through. Yea, I'm sure I'm not the first to write about this but meh. I'll be documenting on my life in NYC and whatever cities I'll be journeying to and part of my life too I guess...and whatever randomness I decide to post. I'll try my best to focus it on food though haha.

The Title, well...I want to be a Michelin rated chef, and I want to work under a Michelin rated chef. I'm still young so I haven't really thought too much about owning my own restaurant and what not. I just want to work under the chefs I really admired. Such as Thomas Keller, Eric Ripert, Ferran Adria or Grant Achatz. Yea those are pretty big name chefs but I would love to work under anyone of them. Let me also say that I do not watch the Food Network, I have much respect for the chefs and cooks on the network. However, the environment they deal with is a bit different from what goes on in a restaurant, the one I get extreme "culinary boners" from. Points for those who can get where that phrase came from haha. I personally do not care about the money, or the business aspect of the restaurant world, as much of a part as it plays. I care about the food, period. Yes I know theres alot more to a restaurant than just food such as decor, service etc. If I cared about those things then I would have gotten a business degree or something. I want to learn more about food, why we like certain things certain ways. Why plating it this way looks better than another, or why certain things just go together, and what is that special magic those Michelin chefs possess that makes their food stand above all others.

Don't see me as a highend food nazi or anything though just because I want to work in a Michelin restaurant. I'd take Takoyaki(Japanese octopus ball), a bowl of Pho or a Nathans hotdog over some fancy fine dining joint when hunger strikes. Maybe it's the environment I don't know but I never like eating in fine dining restaurants. My best memories of food are either home cooked meals or ones I ate off of some side walk or street. However, when I do go to a fine dining joint (not often) I just order water, and food. I dont care about the decor, the colors, or how much the server treats me like a king. I'm there to eat, not filling the void in my ego. So to sum it up, food is all I care about.

My self. I'm 20 as I'm writing the first post. I started in the restaurant business about 2 years ago or so. Young, inexperienced, and naive. Applied everywhere but noone wants some kid to cook for them. The only experience I had was homecooking, reading books from Julia, Jaques Pepin and Harold McGee. Oh yes and awesome knife skills from a certain fruit place ;D. Then one day with luck I got a number from a restaurant in Baltimore and I called. I got a trailing day (it's like a job interview for cooks) and then an actual interview. I was hired. I trained and worked on Garder Manger making salads and desserts. I learned to cook many things but most of which I had already had experience making. My days of reading books paid off and I accelerated quick and before you know it I was on the hot side grilling meat and serving the main courses. It took me a while before I learned that I was working in the top rated french restaurant in baltimore, based on zagat rating. What luck huh? of all the places to take me in, it was the best place for me. The chefs there, Chef Michel and Sous chef Pter taught me alot of things, the skills, the mind and the qualities I would need to be successful. It was there in the small home restaurant that I learned more about food than I had from any book, and what it meant to put care into what I cooked and the story every dish had.

Eventually, time had come for me to move on to the next path in my journey. I started to trail at a restaurant in New York City. Driving at 3AM in the morning for 3 hours to make it there by 6AM to work. I had no Idea what I was getting myself into, all I knew was that it was the most popular rated zagat restaurant in New York. The expectations, the quality and the volume here was on another level. Regardless, the restaurant in Baltimore taught me all I needed, the rest will be up to me. So I packed my bags and moved to Astoria away from family and friends to work here. I have no idea what will happen in the months to come but I will not fail...

Ill update with some pictures and details on my first week of working next time.