A chef, who'd want to be one?

As I lay in bed at 3.45am last night I had actually written this blog post in my head. However that was 5 hours ago and things in the middle of the night when sleep deprived from continually getting up to settle Jett, always seem much worse. It was a rant. I was pissed. I'm getting over it already though.

Kym's back at work and is doing CRAZY hours. Not crazy like before, but CRAZY CRAZY. Like 7 or 8am until 3am. WTF? There have been a few articles lately in various publications like the Sunday Mail, Courier-Mail, GT, and Brisbane Times, all raving about the architecture, the food, the produce. Yay... However my 'yay' as I lay there last night worrying if he's crashed his car on the way home due to sleeplessness, switching between worry and anger over something that sometimes in my opinion (and much to Kym's horror) is 'only food', had definitely fizzled.

These are lovely parts of cheffing - the stuff that's not always so glamourous, and the stuff that isn't usually portrayed clearly on shows like Masterchef. Like seriously, who in their right mind would want to become a chef? Work anywhere from 60-95 hours, getting paid for maybe 38 of them, in a super stressful, and in Summer time, usually 40+ degree kitchen? Waiting on suppliers who are supposed to bring your food in the morning, and decide to send it in one hour before service time instead. Not me.

And you need a thick skin - having worked in hospitality as a waitress before I've seen chefs pushing around apprentices, throwing plates at them (of course Kym would never do this), another one used to be really hard on one particular apprentice only to turn around and tell people when he wasn't there that he was the 'best apprentice I've ever had and don't want to him leave'!

Neither Jett or my unborn, or for that matter any niece or nephew, is allowed to become a chef. They can learn how to cook, maybe work in hospitality to earn some cash while on their way to something else, but that's as far as it goes. I still think it's important to know how to cook, and to learn about foods, what they are, what they do for us. I certainly don't want him to be like one checkout I had the other day at the supermarket who asked me 'what is this', and I looked up thinking it must have been a 'fancy' vegetable I had purchased - no, it was the common 'zucchini'. Perhaps I should have confused her and said it was a 'courgette'??? he he

It's insane. Only a very select few will ever become great - I know that's harsh, but it's true. Those small percentages are the ones whose hard work pays off. Luckily we're in the latter, but that still doesn't excuse you from working six days a week and only seeing your family on Sunday's (which by that time you are a walking zombie anyway!). Aagh! So needless to say you need to have passion - as Kym told one 'would-be-apprentice' the other day - you can teach speed and knifeskills, but you can't teach passion and that's why I'm giving you a go.

OK I think I'm over it. I know there are a lot of thankless jobs out there, and I have friends and family together who have husbands who also have great jobs which still take them interstate or overseas on a regular basis, and that's hard too. I'm just ranting about the one I live with.

So if one more person asks how's the restaurant going I might explode with a few expletives of my own - giving my lovely husband a run for his money in the language department :p

Living the dream baby!

Chocolate & Raspberry tart made a few weeks back - so so rich but so so good!

For years I've had people say to me 'you're so lucky being married to a chef!'. What, being married to someone who works 70-90 hours a week and is too tired on his days off to cook? Spending 5 or more nights by yourself every week. Really, you want that?

Eating out all the time rather than staying in and cooking. I guess that part wasn't too bad. Or having your own personal food critic??? Just kidding. Kym wouldn't dare criticize my food or anyone else's in my family (not if he knows what's good for him!!!). No of course not, but that statement used to bug me a little. I also seemed to be married to one of the few chefs who DOESNT like cooking fabbo meals on his days off. Lucky me :( So many friends who were also with chefs used to talk about the meals they'd cook up on their days off. Lucky them! I've always said Kym seems to enjoy 'creating' new menus and food ideas than he did actually cooking them. The 'ideas ' man so to speak!

No, it's not all bad. There's been trips to Hamilton Island, Melbourne, Sydney, dinners, and lots of other perks. Free food, free alcohol. 'Special treatment' at other restaurants. And I've gotten used to my own little routine and watching my favourite TV shows and never having to share the remote!!!

Where am I going with this? Well since having Jett things started to change. I was too busy feeding Jett to worry about cooking meals so on his days off Kym started doing our cooking. Yay! But things have really changed since the restaurant closed for reno's. Now we really are getting gourmet meals for dinner. And I'm itching for someone to tell me how lucky I am being married to a chef as now I can honestly say 'yes it's great I know!!!'.

Last night was snapper pie (this was devine, if anyone wants the recipe let me know!), the night before was stir fried flathead fillets with ginger, garlic and greens, and well the night before was take out at Bec's place, but you get my drift. I'm not sure how Jett and I will cope when he goes back to work at the end of the year. Jett's already being very spoiled with his meals - I mean, how many babies have tried and liked truffles before they are 18 months old?

Anyway, this was just a little self indulgent post to say 'yay for me!' and achknowledge how lucky I am. People so often focus on the negative aspects of their life and I don't want to be one of those people :)

Thanks for reading :).

It's the answer to everything

Well, just to prove my point about our love of all things salty, Kym had a cooking demonstration in the Queen Street mall on Wednesday for the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide. When the story was written up on their website and he was asked the 'secret of his spectacular flavours', Kym simply replied "salt." He he. You can also check out the article here if you feel so inclined.

It's funny as it's also the answer when he's asked the same question 'why doesn't my food taste as good as this when I cook it at home?' Reply: 'you need to add more salt...'

I guess people will now understand why I cook all Jett's pureed foods rather than let Kym do it. Somehow I think he really doesn't need the salt in his diet just yet :P

But I am proud to say that Kym's public speaking is definitely improving over the years. He's becoming more confident and less mumbly (is that even a word???)- something my sister pointed out just yesterday when I was telling her the demo went well. He was even like that when speaking in front of all my family at our regular gatherings let alone the general public! For a person who only knows one language (English), sometimes you'd swear it wasn't his first!

Oh hang on! Sorry my mistake, he does know how to swear in many languages. A lovely skill he has picked up from his time in kitchens. Perhaps there are a few similarities between Kym and Gordon Ramsey besides the fact they are both chefs - they share the same language skills :P