Cooking, Folks!
I like to cook. I cook a lot. Too much, really. It calms me. It’s like meditation you can eat.
I like the action of a kitchen. Any kitchen. When you have orders to get out it feels like a life or death situation. I never worked in high end places. I did short order work at a bagel joint in high school. I did deli work in one of the last Jewish delis in Boston and counter work in a groovy old hippy-owned place. I did a week of line work at a bar/restaurant called Matt Garrets in Coolidge Corner. I was not cut out for the line. I am not a real cook. I saw myself as one. All it takes is an apron and a knife. I was a disaster on the line. In embarrassing myself I did learn the need for having cooking chops and collaboration when cooking chops.
When I was younger, after high school, I considered culinary school but it all looked very serious. Looking back at it now, maybe it would’ve been a good decision. I could be retiring from a hotel executive chef gig around now like my old roommate. I don’t know if I ever would’ve had the goods to stand out as a chef so I never pursued being a pro. Not unlike guitar, I like being good enough at it to enjoy it and get fun results through self-expression. Results I can hear and eat.
The reason I knew it was possible to just learn to cook on your own was two sided. Some good, some not so good. I’ve told bits and pieces of the story before. Maybe even the whole story. I had a professor in college I was very taken with. He was an impressive guy. Philosophy. I looked up to him. He saw this as an opportunity to become a bit obsessed with me and a bit predatory. He saw my nebulous sense of self and identity as a way to pester me and cause me great anxiety and confusion. He desperately wanted me to be gay, at least for a little while.
Despite this, I spent a lot of time with him and went to many dinner parties at his house. Sometimes with girlfriends. Human shields. Framing this as a traumatic period at this point in my life is a bit helpful but the trauma was eclipsed by this guy’s cooking. He was a self-taught gourmet chef of sorts and could cook for many people. He was great at it. I thought it was so impressive and it made me believe I could do it. He did not make me believe I was gay. You win some, you lose some. So, over the years I learned how to cook. I wouldn’t say I’m great at it but I can do it for myself and others. It’s a gift.
I haven’t talked to a chef in a while. It was fun talking to Michael Symon today about his life and restaurants and food. My old friend Todd Barry is also on today’s show talking about his new YouTube special. On Thursday I talk to Bernie Taupin who wrote some of the greatest songs of all time.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
An Apron and a Knife.
