Sure, it's a phrase that Bourdain himself has coined, but I don't really feel that the majority of his readers (fellow cooks, and chefs alike) really understand on the level he was aiming at.
To cook is to create, is to live, to breathe, to love, to laugh, to be. Cooks beat to the tempo of a drum that most people never will understand, and some fellow cooks for that matter will never understand. To cook free is to find appreciation with what you're cooking. To be able to harbor a so called "endangered species" from an "unknown source" and cook the hell out it into something amazing. It's to take a shark filet and make a tartare, it's to be able to deep fry something in whale fat, it's to put foie grais on a club sandwich, it's to make a dish out of sweetbreads.
It seems that many of the cooks I know seem to have a falling out with their passion, what they do, also tend to forget what drives them to do it. For me it's more than the half way decent paycheck, it's more than the first sip of a cold beer after a long shift, it's more than the first cup of coffee in the morning...hell, maybe it's the first cup of coffee alone that helps drive me.
Most of the time we are going into work, or already at work by the time you are about to head into work, or we are about to end our shift by the time you're going to bed, let me tell you how amazing grocery shopping is at 4 in the morning.
Maybe I spend too much time trying to put into words what drives me, and what is a true definition of my passion, my nature if you will. Surely most of the people reading this won't understand it, and half the time I don't because I can't fully express what these words, the tastes, the memories I have really mean. Maybe I just have this blog as a giant white board to see my thoughts, my progression...yet still I can't narrow it down as to what my main passion is for cooking other than the process itself.
If I could do anything over in life it'd be to do it all over again the same way. Sure,I could make wiser choices, but in the end the result wouldn't be the same.
Friday, March 4, 2011
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