6.23.10

I’m a genius!  No, wait.

Time after time I scope a conundrum and push my brain to capacity to disassemble and reassemble to create streamlined, aerodynamic, shiny, smooth perfection.  Can’t be bothered with peripherals now, I’m focused on the issue at hand.  This train is barreling down the track and there is no reverse and no rear view mirror.  Speeding through time and space my quest will not be sidetracked.  Hours to months to years have been spent kicking through the grey matter in order to solve this riddle.  And then, calm. Of course, it’s so simple.  This makes perfect sense.  Come everyone, gather round!  Come and be amazed at what has been presented to you!

Well… yes, I guess it is in the instructions.

Yes….that is how my mother and her mother have been making that for decades.

No, apparently I wasn’t listening when you told me that.  How long ago was that?  9 months, eh? Hmm.

So……….umm……..there’s that thing I did………over there…….

On a side note, I read part of an article that dealt with chefs’ blogs and how they get started and put up a couple and then fall off and forget all about it.  Thank God that didn’t happen to me.

3.1.10

That’s Alexander; he’s a regular.

We are extremely lucky, some would even say “blessed”, to have the regulars that we have here at Fritz Pastry.  One in particular is a gentleman who I hadn’t seen around much in the last few weeks – until today.  “Hello Miss Elaine”, I heard from the dining room.  He’s here.  I couldn’t say where he had been.  Was he jet setting in Europe?  Had he gone south of the border to live it up in Tijuana?  Or, was he just laying low in these cold winter months?  I didn’t know, I was just glad he was back.   Sometimes he brings his mother in and sometimes he saunters in by himself.  He’s a polite and kind soul, always using “Miss” or “Mister”.  A man of routine: he orders, receives his treat, takes his change and receipt, says “thank you” and smiles.  These small moments bring a little extra light into our day and we are glad to have him here.

To you sir, to you.

2.16.10

I want to be a stock maker.

-“it’s the first thing you learn right?  I mean, come on!  Stocks and soups first day!” –Phil Levinson.

It was.  It was the first day of school.  Here’s the basics kids, learn them.  I was going to learn it.  I wasn’t going to go outside of that little world of stocks and soups.  That was my calling in life.  That was my job.  I would create the bases for the other guys in the kitchen to allow them to excel.  I would be the unsung hero of every kitchen I ever worked in.  “Yes, I would like to apply for the stocks and soup chef position please.  I’m going to need weekends off and $50,000 a year.”  Apparently that’s not a real job.  But, that didn’t stop me from keeping the same mindset as I went on through almost every early move I made.  “I’m a garde manger chef (actually I worked the salad station), not a dishwasher.”  “Why am I making potato gratin?  I’m a pastry cook.”  “I don’t make cakes I’m more of a restaurant dessert type guy.”

Can’t afford to be stubborn or one track minded.  Also, I need to make a cake.

2.8.10

Screaming at a Wall

-why not do it?  Nobody’s going to listen anyway.

-it’s cathartic.

-I read other blogs… ideas in food…. Michael Laiskonis.

I really enjoy myspace for the simple fact that nobody cares about it.  It looks as though ashton kutcher and some selena girl are crazy about it, but that seems to be the extent of it.  I have a myspace page.  I write music and put it on there and nobody listens to it aside from perhaps rich salamander (real genius).  I’m cool with that.  It’s kind of like singing at the top of your lungs while driving alone on a country road.  Nobody knows.  It’s the HAM radio of the new millennium.  I can say what I’m thinking and not worry about people knowing.  There are so many possibilities for people to look at and hear and read and whatever on the internet that me writing a manifesto about changing world views by adding more and more flouride to people’s drinking water until they lose all ability to discern their pets from super scary monsters like merman and skeletor is just a blip across the screen…….. its as though I’m not even there.  It’s the equivalent of an awkward teenage boy keeping a journal, nothing interesting to nobody.   So……. anyway….. yeah,  here’s the beginning of my blog.  I’m sure it’s going to be very interesting to a lot of people. I plan on tackling all of the tough issues that the masses are going to want to hear about.