Just a Cook

From Heat (An amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante quoting butcher in Tuscany) by Bill Buford, Vintage Books: NY, 2006, p. 313

I didn't want to be a chef: just a cook. And my experiences in Italy had taught me why. For millenia, people have know how to make their food. They have understood animals and what to do with them, have cooked with the seasons and had a farmer's knowledge of the way the planet works. They have preserved traditions of preparing food, handed down through generations and have this kind of knowledge today, even though it seems as fundamental as the earth, and, it's true, those who do have it tend to be professionals - like chefs. But I didn't want this knowledge in order to be a professional; just to be more human.


Photo: Summer Farmer's Market Bounty Vegetable Plate
Roasted chioggia beets, red onion, mesclun; chopped salad of tomatoes, yellow/red bell peppers, red onion, Persian cucumber dressed with salt, olive oil & lemon