People that have no idea what they want, who they are, or what they love bother me. I'm not saying I've got it all figured out or that I'm above hypocrisy, but a common theme among people here is uncertainty. There are lots of people that went so far away to be on their own with a life in cuisine as an excuse, but by the middle of the curriculum realize that they would never be able to do this shit professionally, so they just sit around the dorm on borrowed money, wasting away under the flourescent lights knowing they'll never amount to anything at this rate, but too lazy to really take control of their lives.
Most people slept through Chef Hunt's lecture on ACF certification and levels of skill in our industry. Hunt (one of the pioneers of the American system of apprenticeship and the recognition of cooking as a profession in the 1970s) talked about the Chaine des Rotisseurs, a 600 year-old organization devoted to perfection in gastronomy. I mean, Jesus, people, by putting on the whites every morning we belong to an international society that predates Christianity! There are only 67 master chefs in the country, and only 12 master pastry chefs! There is so much to aspire to in this field aside from making boatloads of money and associating with TV cooks who couldn't do high-volume cooking if their lives depended on it. Sure, Emeril can probably make a hell of a jambalaya. But so the fuck can I. I would truly love to see him make it that well for the Superbowl, because I bet you he wouldn't say bam while dumping buckets of trinity and speed racks of medium-dice tasso into a row of steam-jacketed kettles.
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