The best decision I made all summer was to work for myself. To cater events, to cook private dinner parties, to not get a conventional summer job. Not only have I made more than I have any other summer, I've enjoyed my summer much more. I've had much more free time. While my friends slaved away working every day for summer camps, I stayed in my house, plotting spreadsheets to determine food costs and profits and cooking. This isn't as true for catering larger events, but I still can't believe I get payed for cooking private dinner parties. It's always so much fun and generally relaxed, and I get to cook and interact with the customers and such. Catering is a little different. Those events are fun, but by nature (large amount of people) are more stressful.

But really this job is great. I run it like a business. I'm always on the lookout for potential clients. I've started to make comprehensive spreadsheets that detail each dinner (how much did I profit, did my projected profits meet my actual profit aka did I meet my budget, how much did I spend for each dish, where can I cut costs in the future, what were the guests' comments, what will I change next time). I have control. I have the power to run this into the ground or to build it up. You don't get that from a job at the ice cream shop.

Webchat with me!

Tune in here http://www.whyy.org/community/fit_chat_gettingstarted.html tomorrow, Tuesday August 17 at 12 and ask me anything about anything (but mostly cooking) on an online web chat hosted by WHYY!

What am I doing?

Oh yea, that's right, I'm doing me.

Props to anyone understood that pop culture reference. I thought that some of you might be curious about what's going on with me. What's the next step?

Well I don't know what I'll get. I do know what I want, but I'm not sure what will come out of it. I want to go to Wharton (the business school at the university of Pennsylvania) damnit. That's where I will go. That's where I must go. I love business. I love management. I love running shit. I love that whole deal. I want to have experience in business so that I can open my own restaurant. I feel that a lot of restaurants fail because chefs know how to cook and nothing more. They lack acute accounting skills. I want to run a tight ship. I want to know my finances. That knowledge will make me comfortable cooking. I will be on top of things. I hope.

I love Wharton. I love the curriculum. I love Philadelphia. I love the campus. I love the thought that I could be going to one of the best undergrad business programs in the country. But what if I don't get in? See, basically I'm doing exactly what they tell you not to do in regards to college hunting. I'm putting all my eggs in one basket. I really want Wharton and if I plan to purchase a punching pag perchance I don't get in. But if I don't get in, I don't get in. I have to make due. I'm stubborn though, and pathetic sometimes. I think a lot of things aren't worth doing if I don't have the potential to be the best. That's why I quit basketball. That's why I cried when I lost a spelling B in second grade. I'm a baby. But if it's not Wharton, it'll be Lehigh business, or  Michigan business, or Virginia business, or Penn State business. And I'll mope for a little while, but then I'll be fine. And I'll move on. And I'll still run a tight ship when I own a restaurant.

But if anyone knows the admissions officer at Penn, put in a good word for me wont you ;)

Food Shows Today

Is it just me, or is food in pop culture getting kind of boring? It feels like it's all the same. It isn't evolving. It isn't expanding even as the public grows accustomed to what's on television. I used to really enjoy watching Barefoot Contessa and Everyday Italian and others (actually now that I think about it I do still enjoy watching Everyday Italian, but not for the food) but now they're just boring.

I mean every show is kinda the same. Giada boils pasta then tosses it with pesto then makes some wonderful biscotti, "which means twice baked in Italian," Paula Dean makes "good ol southern fried chicken" for dinner and butter for dessert.  It's funny how well I can sum up their shows with two dishes. After watching these shows for years they're getting kinda dull. They seldom offer information to help me elevate my cooking and I don't really learn anything new by watching them.

This isn't true for everybody I'm sure and I would think that, for instance, my mom disagrees. She probably learns a lot from each episode of Rachel Ray or Everyday Italian. A lot of people do. A lot of people are fascinated by what the hosts do on these shows, and I argue that that is because the viewers have little background in technique. They understand how to read recipes, but don't comprehend processes.

And who can blame anyone for that? Food culture these days is based around recipes. On every food show, a recipe is offered, hardly does a show zero in on a technique that will alllow you to create a recipe over and over again with different ingredients. Why would they? Then you wouldn't need to watch their show.

You should buy Ruhlman's Ratio and learn the basic methods that govern the creation of everyday dishes. Then, every new show may be entertaining, but it certainly won't be revolutionary and over time, the individual shows will begin to blend together as you realize that all the mainstream food shows use a series of basic techniques with different ingredients and some flourishes added on.

IM BACK

Where the bleep have I been seriously? I've been absent, my writing vacant. I'm that goddamned sketchy friend who never returns calls, who just kinda goes away and leaves you behind. You can love me (doubtful) or hate me (probable) but either way, I'm back, and we can have fun once again. Let's talk food.

So where have I been? Reading Atonement. Getting an Ipad. Reading the WSJ every morning on my ipad. Cooking dinners for clients. Last Thursday I did a wine gala for 200. I rented wine glasses, picked up Pellagrino, hired servers (my buddies), purchased serving trays and napkins, and made quarter-sized blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche to be passed around. And I got paid for it. Sure as hell beats working at an ice cream shop. I took a class on small business and entrepreneurship at Penn. I went to a seminar on the restaurant business hosted by the Philadelphia Business Journal. It featured Jen Carrol, Rob Wasserman (owner of Rouge), Michael Solomonov (chef/owner of Zahav) and Ellen Yin (part-owner of Fork and Fork etc.). Yea. It sucked. Other than the first 30 minutes of kind of a cocktail-hour type setting in which I was able to talk to Ellen Yin about Fork (I worked there for a period) and I met Rob Wasserman who invited me to stage at Rouge, it was awful and uninformative. It was poorly put together. A few general questions were asked by a moderator and the chefs talked about the industry as it is currently, and all I really got out of it was that these restaurants are in better shape than last year. No shit right?

But back to the Gala. Yea that was great. That was jolly fun. I got to exercise genuine authority over a bunch of friends, what could be better right? Haha. It was great, yet terribly nerve racking in the days and hours leading up to the event. I had never done anything like that and it was really good for me to get out of my comfort zone. Before, all I had ever really done for clients was cook. I focused on what I knew. With this event I almost had to act as an event planner. I bought a BJ's membership (Alice Waters is surely plotting to kill me in my sleep) so that I could buy Pellagrino in bulk for cheap. I went to Party Land and got napkins. I went to some restaurant supply store in the city and picked up serving trays with lots of traction so that the wine wouldn't spill when passed (yes the wine was to be passed, that freaked me out when i found out), and I picked up pizza trays at the same store on which to serve the blinis. And that's only the half of it.

(haha there I am strutting down the aisle)

As the event approached, I ran situations over and over in my mind. What was I missing? The day before the event one of the four people I had hired texted me saying "How badly do you need me tomorrow?" I frikin freaked out. She couldn't be seriously cancelling on me now. Hahahaha wow I thought, so this is what it's like at Lacroix, or any restaurant for that matter, when a server decides they don't want to show up when they're scheduled. Luckily she didn't need to to "be with her boyfriend who was in from Boston" I made sure of that. The next day however, she asked me if he could come too. I was pissed off, but she said he would work for free. I made sure that he wouldn't be a distraction and let him on. That turned out to be a great decision.

The day of, almost everything went smoothly--thankfully and surprisingly. I made blinis until 3 then I showed up at the gala. I chilled the wine and Pellagrino with the help of my servers, then began to set up the blinis. I made my servers practice carrying the wine glasses before the event began--I was still quite nervous that one of them would drop a glass--not at all because of their imcompetence.

So the event began, and ran smoothly throughout. I hardly remember the middle of the event. It was a blur. Nothing of great significance occurred. It was smooth. Without blemish. At the end the bosses were happy but not overly so. It was a job well done, and that was what they had expected, and was all that they would tolerate. I felt like an adult. I shook his hand and acted as if this was the norm. As if this job was effortless. My expressionless face concealed the work and worry I had put in. And that was how it should be. They shouldn't know of anything more than work aptly completed.

Lunch for myself

Pulled then seared pork shoulder, avocado, roasted potatoes tossed with romesco and pecorino.

Lunches for sis keep on coming

This here is pulled then seared pork shoulder, mozzarella, tomato, and avocado on toasted spinach focaccia.