aculinaryobservation

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Lucky enough to get free black and white film and have a wonderful campus to take pictures.

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The Transition

Very interesting to find this blog is here and still showing things from my past.

Long after my disappearance from this website, I have left Los Angeles. Originally this was called "Cooking thru Los Angeles". Not much came of it but it was the original version of what "A Culinary Observation" podcast would become.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, like many people with too much time to themselves, I took up a podcast. The podcast was fun to produce and edit. I even had a full on website with square space and interviews with people. Only in audio format, I'm not video performer. I did turn out many episodes and hours alone in a room while the rest of my life was deep in their own worries.

Soon after the world had some normalcy, I had to return to working in the kitchen. That left me with very limited time, and as the podcast was purely to be a hobby, I feel out of love with it. Creating constant content is not fun, I truly love to take my time but that takes away from the relativity of the conversation. Having to give context and talk into a microphone for hours at a time, is also not as fun as it may seem. So I closed up shop abruptly and have been looking for a new format.

Instagram is too fast paced. No Facebook for me either, I just hate it. TikTok... no thank you. Square Space is awesome but I'm not ready for that quite yet. Financially it does not make sense.

So, here I am, on tumblr and going to give this a shot once more. If it is creatively satisfying then I will keep it up. Never do I expect this to be more than a venture into the internet space and see what comes out on the other end.

The podcast is still streaming on many platforms but for how long, I do not know. I currently have all the original recordings and edits and if this style of creativity works, maybe it will make a reappearance in another version.

As a side note... Podcasting is definitely fun, and I don't want to give up on that format. "A Culinary Observation" was intended to share my experiences and my opinions of the culinary industry. This is my life, and I doubt that i'll ever change my profession. [well maybe never, I would love to become a photographer or cinematographer in some way.] Another show I am working on opens up to more about life, culture and my industry and not limited to just the industry. Maybe by 2025. Who knows.

Cooking and talking about it can draw a lot of feelings, it's sometimes stressful to relive. I spoke about my life in season one, with some depth. I have very few pictures from that day, but on here I have some of my writings that I wanted to share. I hope that in this format, I can share my old pictures and add the context and what life was like in the moment as a young cook. It's exciting to share.

I will claim this website under the name of "A Culinary Observation"... I still own the domain name so I might as well try to use it since I pay for it.

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Home made squid ink caviar.

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Food

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Smoked tea “caviar”

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Cheese

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Late night snacks.

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Culinary School and beyond!

One would think that being a culinary school graduate can open doors to opportunities one could only dream of, what you don’t ever consider is the envy that can come with it. In the past, I’ve gone to interviews where my education at Le Cordon Bleu becomes the topic of conversation, leading to questions like; “So, I see you went to culinary school. Do you think it was really worth your time?” or “You know, you could have just started working and learned the same things without having spent $35,000.” Now, I was no rich kid growing up, and I wasn’t a poor kid either, no, I was fortunate enough to live comfortably in the middle, a middle class kid. My father helped me pay for tuition by co-signing for a loan after realizing the conventional school system wasn’t for me, [fuck no] I knew what I wanted, and it wasn’t in a standard college classroom. When interviewers ask me those type of questions (those bullshit “worth your time” questions) I start to think, why should I waste my time explaining to this guy why I chose the path I did? Who gives a fuck? The point is I’m qualified. My second job in the culinary world was, well, interesting. Before I tell you about that one, let us pause for a quick flashback… I worked at this other restaurant for one week before calling it quits. That job was awful. Get this, only two cooks, eight bucks an hour, and no cleaning crew. They made me come in at five am to clean the restrooms, sweep and mop the patio and still prep, then cook and serve guest. [pfff] Okay, now back to job two, I was hired at a steak and seafood restaurant in Long Beach, CA. They hired me as Sous chef, which was a bit of a joke considering I hadn't been in any formal management position prior, but I took it, I’m not one to judge until I get in there. The "Executive" chef was a small stumpy man, we shall call him Ron Wellington. Ron was an army cook in the past, he resembled Popeye [interesting]. He was a very nice fellow, he needed a helping hand to run this small restaurant, that was usually feeding a clientele made up of mostly seniors. When he interviewed me I couldn't help but lie. He asked me if I had ever professionally fabricated proteins and fish, which I hadn't, but I figured how hard could it be? Ron hired me on the spot, with a salary of $10 an hour, no “overtime” he stressed, this was “salary.” Being that those were the days I was just a kid, I didn’t care, I had stamina and plenty of drive, this would be my chance to work on my art. Many stories and experiences came from this job but the most memorable was a challenging one but also an encouraging story. One evening, like any other evening, I headed over to the liquor store to pick up some energy drinks for Ron and myself, we’d typically drink three a day, however, this was the night that made me want to stop. Ron was in his early fifties, he would usually smoke a pack a day and drink three large energy drinks. Well, this night it finally caught up to him, Ron had himself a heart attack, it didn’t kill him, but it kept him out long enough. That evening, the other cook, we’ll call him Alex, a server and I had to run the place, and I can definitely remember it was not a slow night, one of our busiest. We turned over 150 covers (if you don't know, 150 covers are 150 people, under two hours). For this being my second job, I was ready for the challenge[sort of], we had some rough moments but we pulled through, with even some very happy guest. The end of that night was the start of a new found trust between myself and the owners. They entrusted me to make up new items and run a bar menu, which I was so grateful for, but as with all good things, they must come to an end. In the end I left that establishment on bad terms because I asked for more money and maybe some health care options, which evidently weren't in the budget. Culinary School or not, passion and creativity towards the talent of cooking can go very far in this industry. Studying for the degree is a great way to show employers that you do want to take cooking seriously, but what is most important, for the long haul, is the time you put into your craft. Just as it's important to find the right team to work with, it's important to show that you can work with a team for extended period of time. But don't settle for just any job. If the team is abusive and arrogant, then really way your options: A. Do you want to get a half decent paycheck, work your ass off, have chefs and cooks pushing you negatively and just being stressed daily or B. Try to find a team of passionate cooks that want to share ideas and cook food responsibly, pay check decent to half and less stress because everyone motivates each other. I'll take B. please.... Thank you, Me.

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Great food to be around

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Yellowtail

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Beet Salad

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Cooking is Fun but Hard.

Hello,

Im a young lad in Los Angeles California with a passion for the artistic. Not only can I cook professionally and have been for over ten years now but I really love to draw, write music and just plainly create. Perhaps the purpose of this Tumblr will be to blog thru my mind. A way to remind me of where I have been and who I have cooked with. I will choose not to disclose my name or the names of others or the restaurants I’ve worked in but the places I’ve been could possibly be easy to guess… who knows. 

Cooking thru Los Angles has been a major joy for me, especially getting to work with such passionate people but it isn’t always like that. As a matter of fact it took me the tens years of cooking to find a team I could help assemble that are passionate and creative. 

In the beginning of my career I worked in West Hollywood at a very beautiful hotel, the staff in the kitchen were mostly older Mexican immigrants. I had just turned eighteen and was extremely excited and scared to be working in a real food establishment. My first line of shift were strictly breakfast and if you ask any cook, breakfast can be the hardest time of the day. Not to say dinner is any easier but breakfast sometimes can carry into lunch and making sure FOH is strong enough to say “no” is what makes it challenging. 

Getting in at five am, you have to prep as much as you can before that first breakfast rush comes in because it does not stop until about eleven am or noonish. Not every kitchen, like the one I worked in, has the chance to come in an hour early for prep without having to put out a dish. This spot is a twenty four hour restaurant and the few that stayed past the two am cut off are now hungry and “hung the fuck over”. They wanted pancakes and they wanted them now, even if the menu from late night hasn’t switched over; even worse they wanted an egg white omelet and it shouldn’t be be burnt on the bottom or it will come back.

Arriving time for myself in the morning was the release for the overnight cook, who in my case, was a most recent culinary student as well. Two young lads leading a kitchen… well sort of, not too many people were there and the Sous Chef showed up right at six to make sure I wasn’t already having to handle a line full of tickets. 

One of the most important things a cook needs to know is that quality and quantity go hand in hand. The fucking ticket machine does not stop printing when you work breakfast, especially in a high income hotel/ high income area. Front of house (FOH) has a great deal to do with the stress of the kitchen, not because they are incompetent or anything, the FOH have to deal with shitty costumers that feel they can act any way they want and get the same, if not better service. The FOH staff at my breakfast spot were amazing, totally laid back rocker guys that were older than me and had more important things to do than I did. I just flipped omelets for a living at that point. Even with such cool heads they would from time to time have to accommodate that one drunk person with a smile and have so many modifications on the order.

Here starts the stress… 

It’s new years day 2007, I’ve been on the line since April 2006, routine has already been established and the communication between overnight and myself of my morning needs is more than well know. I’m driving into the lot at my normal time, ready for a busy morning… unbeknownst to me that the people from the new years eve party never left. The restaurant is filled from end to end, every seat has an ass in it and more are standing. I walk in to the kitchen and my overnight friend is alone trying to cook for fifty plus tickets because the other overnight guy had to leave for his other job. From the start it was fucked, the FOH guys are all asking for ticket numbers that we can’t find…

“Did table thirteen go out?!”

“I don’t see a thirteen, what are you talking about?”

“I put that ticket in over an hour ago, all I need is a bowl of oatmeal!”

“Well come put some gloves on and make it, I have fourteen omelets working right now and twenty orders of pancakes are coming up!”

“You’re giving me orders from over an hour and a half ago, why are you so behind!”

Thats what I walked into, immediately you can’t really stop everyone and say, “whoa whoa whoa, gentleman, let us not lose our minds.” any type of encouragement at this time is not appreciated and could easily find your self in a fist fight in front of the entire restaurant; not too bad, meal and a show but they are getting one by the way you see the FOH staff yelling thru a window at one cook. Three on one. Oh, I didn’t get to mention that there was also room service to deal with in this place. so tickets are printing from two locations and the third, poolside, opens at 8am. Not to say my addition was what made the difference but the overnight guy and I knocked that shit out as fast as possible. i’m not gonna lie, there were some orders that went out half assed…

“Can I get table twenty twos omelet now!”

“Give me a second, i’m sautéing the spinach for it and the mushrooms for two.”

“Fuck it, i need it now.”

“It needs a little more time…”

“Now!”

“Okay fine.”

Out goes an egg white omelet, brown on the bottom, spinach kinda cooked, and mushrooms kinda cooked without seasoning. Less then a minute passes and…

“I need a re-fire on table twenty two.“

“All of it!?”

“Yeah, the guy said the omelet wasn’t seasoned and it was burned…. you see [showing me the bottom of the egg]”

“Yes i see, if you would’ve waited like I asked you’d have a better product, not we have to throw away his pancakes and omelet because YOU wouldn’t wait half a fucking minute.”

“Lets not argue who’s right or wrong, just give me that other omelet you have on order and i’ll take these pancakes”….

Now this guy has fucked us all… the omelet and pancakes that are being taken are really supposed to go to a guy who has been told at the bar that His pancakes were sitting in the window and His omelet was coming up right behind. The guy knows… and watches his food being taken from him to another table. Now his order that he waited for an hour is gonna take at least another few minutes and every ticket behind him, are now backed even further. Anytime this happens, people get pissed. The guy at the bar now asked the waiter where his food is, of course they try to say… the kitchen is a little backed up and it should come out shortly… only this guys knows his food was taken away. He didn’t like that and ripped the waiter, who isn’t even helping him, a new asshole. The overnight guy was backed up from 4am, the people at 4am ate close to 5:30am and the 6am guys ate at 7am… 8am ate at 8:30am and anyone after 9:30am ate within ten minutes.

After we destroyed the kitchen and full staff was on hand most the FOH staff, my self and the overnight cook pulled a few beers to the parking garage and said happy new years. Beers and cigarettes, breakfast of champions. We all had a good laugh, FOH even tipped us out some because who knew that two young culinary grads could handle close to 250 tickets. First job. It might sounds light to some people in the industry but remember that we had to still do prep for breakfast and lunch. The walk-in for this place was down a flight of stairs. Not an easy morning but a whole lot of fun. Also a game changer, it gave me the confidence i continue to build. Never give up, Never Surrender.