When Gretchen and I are in the kitchen, it’s like a dance. She chills the wine, I pour. She makes breakfast and dessert, I make dinner – she is my faithful sous chef. Two years ago, after one of our great dances in the kitchen, Gretchen wrote this in her journal and shared it with me a few days later.
I could not have foreseen that a simple dinner would have inspired her to pen these words.
Therefore,
It is my pleasure to share her work on my blog — my home on the web.
Let me watch you work.
I know the result is always magical, rich, layered with flavor – so let me see how you get there.
Ok, some of this. Salt and pepper.
Some of that. Garlic, Cayenne, olive oil, and of course, Grind, Sprinkle, Pour.
The pasta boils on the stovetop.
All on a big pan in the oven.
Crab legs in the oven didn’t know that. Spices on the shell?
Time to open the oven and check.
Wait.
She is adding heavy cream to the pan of crab legs. How do they eat these? Some other way than cracking them open and pulling out the meat? What is the point of cream under the shells on the hot pan?
My friend knows savory food.
The questions burn within me, but I don’t ask them, I just watch.
And now she sprinkles pungent cheese on top of the crab legs!!!. She is sprinkling cheese on the part you don’t eat.
The girl has lost her mind. But who am I to say? Maybe she likes to eat the shells?
What is going on?
She is a master in the kitchen. She follows her instinct in a way I can not fathom. I will trust her till the end because my experience tells me she knows things I don’t. Memories of flavors from the past lend me patience for my burning questions inside:
Why are you doing that?
Aren’t you wasting costly ingredients?
What is the point of all these flavors? They will never reach the inside, they have no real purpose.
What is the point of all that work? Why?
Watch and see.
Trust the master crafter.
Remember the flavors of the past.
Keep quiet.
Wait for the surprise revelation.
Here, help me pour out this sauce. Careful with the hot pan as I take out the crab.
The pasta is ready for all those flavors. Ready to soak up the spices, the cream, the essence of crab from the shells, the expensive pungent cheese.
The pasta will make use of all that flavor.
She was building flavor THE WHOLE TIME.
Nothing is wasted. Not one ingredient, nor time. Not patience, nor intuitive sprinkling.
Oh, the debt I owe the chef.
My surprise is a revelation to her –
Did you not see the whole time?
Oh my friend, did you not guess my final purpose?
A delicious reward awaits those who hold their burning questions, who trust and watch the master at work.
A trust born of experience tastes the feast of revealed purpose.
A master’s purpose is never in vain, though an untrained observer may wait in a blind trust to see the resulting feast.
