I’ve Established A Routine.

Back in Chicago I loved eating out. I’d enjoy speaking to the front of the house about what was on my plate and they’d politely explain it, as the front of the house is supposed to do. But there was something missing. I never actually related to any restaurant staff because I never worked in a restaurant. It’s not possible. I’d sit there in my finest sweater, drinking wine and schmoozing all the while making it seem obvious that I wouldn’t fit in on the other side of the kitchen. That I don’t belong on the other side. I never conducted myself as such but I couldn’t help but feel a little yuppie. Well it’s time for that shit to change. I want to be the guy talking to YOU about MY food and what’s on your plate. It’s one of the many things I’ve learned about me on this “journey” to “find myself.” <– cliché, barf, but true.

One thing I wanted to try and cover on this blog is how to visually explain what’s it’s like to actually be here. My pal Arden Stringer has a beautifully written blog and she does a great job of enabling you to visualize things through her writing. My blog is mostly introspective. A public diary, if you will. Hers is more describing the things we’re doing in visual detail. It inspired me to try and emulate it a bit in my own way.

So we’re 3 weeks in here now. I’ve established a routine. A GREAT routine. In the evenings I’ll exercise/socialize. I group them together because I’ll typically do it with other people. We have a “Ballymaloe Running Club.” The roads here are mega narrow so it’s pretty comical how we have to go to single file around blind curves. It’s mostly countryside around here. So the left and right of the narrow roads are typically cobblestone walls covered in moss. The walls are probably older than the entire settled USA. They’re covered with vines and shrubs. The most common is blackberries. There are also a lot of fuschia flowers, rose hips and other things I’m yet to identify. I ate what I thought was a blueberry today but turns out it was a Damson, so classify that as identified. You most definitely don’t want to eat damsons. It’s got tannins that make you pucker up and make bitter beer face. The houses are spread out farmhouse style cottages and they’re charming. Arched roofs, lots of red and everyone has a dog. Then they’ll be surrounded by farmland, often with cattle, sheep, horses or a combination. We’ve also been playing a lot of American football and soccer. So much so that the school mowed a field and put up soccer goals. It’s fun to teach the Europeans the rules.

After that I’ll come home, sometimes crack a beer, sometimes prepare an herb tea (every herb you could ever imagine is grown here. Herb tea is one of my new jams) and prepare for the next day. That means filing away old recipes and reading over what’s on tap for the next morning’s cooking. Afternoons are spent in the demo room learning about techniques and ingredients. The demo kitchen is very well done. There is a giant mirror overhead so you can see what’s going on, as well as monitors on either side. Then there are 64 of us in the most uncomfortable chairs trying to pay attention after eating a lunch that always contains copious amounts of butter/cream/salt/sugar/eggs, a cheese course and dessert. Note that this is why I’m exercising.

I’ll get to weekends another time as I want to limit the length of this post. But here is a funny photo of us eating fish and chips on paper in an un-marked, but highly recommended “take away” restaurant.

Okay thanks for coming along on my visual writing experiment. The point of all that was to establish that I’m in a routine. How 6 months ago I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth when I’d tell people I was quitting my job and going to cooking school. Imagine if those words came out of your mouth to friends and family, either cooking school or something else that fits you, would you believe it? Yet now here I am, 3 weeks in, writing this blog after finishing my filing and studying. Ready to start the routine all over in week 4. For the most part it’s been great. But I think there will always be that latent anxiety over the fact that I’m in a routine on a farm in Ireland instead of being in a more normal routine back home. The good part of all this is that I’ve experienced more feelings here in these three weeks than I have in years. Highs AND lows. I think I needed this “find myself” type of experience to unlock the ability to let these emotions through. I’m even finding positives out of the lows. Even though some lows aren’t ideal it feels good to feel as strongly as I do.

Let’s cover some food stuffs. My teacher this week was Debbie. Debbie doesn’t put up with bullshit and she will let you know if you screw something up. She also genuinely cares about your success. I screwed stuff up at the beginning of the week. She said I need to listen better (so did my preschool through college teachers, all my ex girlfriends, my parents, my friends, my barber, the florist and my favorite bartenders). So I did my best to kick in to gear. As I mentioned previously I actually give a crap about this and really, really, really want to succeed. At the end of the week Debbie gave me a perfect score on my dessert, said I made great strides and that she was proud of me. Do you know how good that felt? To work all week under intense pressure, getting your ass ridden by a tough teacher and then to hear she’s proud of you? Compliments like that mean more than they ever have, all because I give a shit and I’m working my butt off. Here are some photos of my best stuff from the week.

That’s all I have for this week. I’ll try and post more frequently going forward, at least twice a week since I’m missing out on covering a lot of good stuff. Tomorrow I’m making roast guinea fowl and swede turnips with carmelized onions. There is also a meeting about a pop restaurant the school is hosting for Slow Food Ireland. It’s an organization dedicated to good, sustainable food and fair treatment for the farmers and producers of such food. The restaurant is a fixed price/menu and it’s entirely run by students. I’m putting my name in to run the entire thing. Will of course post more if that happens.

Thanks for reading. GO CUBS.