Omnivore - Knife’s Edge: Food borne illness

My birthday was last week. As with most chefs (or probably most people), I got to choose where to go for dinner with my family. In recent years, I’ve picked a basic steak restaurant. Or a kitchen doing quality pasta. Or even a typical chain restaurant.  For my last three birthdays we went to Fogo de Chao, Ted’s and Outback. Once, I picked the Olive Garden. It’s true. It was a deliberate choice. I wanted to ease the pressure of the “chef’s big dinner out”.  I also don’t mind iceberg lettuce, canned olives, and undercooked bread once a year. But this wasn’t always the case.

When a young cook starts out, everything truly is a wonder. Our first few serious meals are looked at through curious eyes. We don’t know much, so it’s all stimulating. I remember my first few restaurant meals early in my career clear as day. Horseradish mashed potatoes.  A crispy chip of lotus root.  Lamb shank with a giant stem of rosemary sticking in it. Ostrich with a Coca Cola demi glace.

I would enthusiastically tell the waiter I was in culinary school. I asked what farfalle was because I didn’t know, and I admired the chefs of these kitchens as if they were superstars. This wasn’t Paris, by the way, it was Long Island. Most of theses guys were a shade removed from frying calamari. I was just happy to be there.

Fast forward five years, and the food I’ve described (as it may have seemed to you while reading about it) was a joke. An offensive one, which I didn’t actually find funny.  Who would dare stick a stem of rosemary, an inedible garnish, on a finished plate? What horror!  If you were dining out with me during this period... well, I’m sorry. There’s a chance you were a normal person who honestly didn’t care less about the way the chives were sliced for that baked potato. My disgust at the fact that they were actually scallions, and not chives at all, probably irritated you. The discourse that ensued about the fact the spud was really microwaved, and not even baked, sealed the deal. There was no second date.