More Passion for Cooking

Recently I've had a rather disturbing revelation. I was just tossing around my cloth in the air, practicing my pizza throw as I said in my weekly summary, when suddenly I noticed the time and desired a break. This came as very disturbing to me. A break? After less than half an hour of practice? It then dawned on me that not enough of my life is dedicated to my career, at least not in time dedication. I haven't been reading enough, thinking about cooking enough, trying new things enough, tasting enough, and so on. For far too long I've been content leading one life at work, practicing my chocolate connoisseurship at home, and leaving my time for everything else up for grabs. If I have a passion for my field, then where's is it?

This has given me immense motivation to hurry and solve this problem, lest I perpetuate the deviation. If not fixed, then I am ultimately betraying myself, as after all my great aim in life is to realize my total and maximum potential. I can't do that if my greater concern is to settle down for the night with Sherlock Holmes on Hulu than I am with my culinary reading, can I? Geez, where has my head been?

For the most part, I really need to step it up with my culinary studies (i.e. reading) and take a more serious approach to my cooking. I didn't mention my restaurant job because I'm quite satisfied with the steady stream of self-improvement goals I keep thinking up there, leaving me never stagnant in my abilities, though I do have something study-wise in mind. There may be more areas, but it is these where I think the most essential changes need to be made.

For reading, it's simple: More time dedication, more effort! While I've been doing well to get back on track this week, I'm still far from restoring myself as a voracious reader as I was in my greater youth. For pete's sake I have in my ownership the great Cookwise and haven't even finished it, and have taken no where near full advantage of my copies of Good Eats: The Early Years and Good Eats 2: The Middle Years. And yet, I pine for more selections from the library? In addition to working my way through more chocolate books, I've got to give more attention to my own bookshelf once and a while.

I'm not sure what exactly to do about my cooking endeavors beyond a few vague specifics in mind. You might remember that I've had severe recipe frustrations in the past, not knowing of any good system for storing them or cycling them for my reference. Beyond that my finances are incredibly tight, as I'm living paycheck to paycheck at the present, so saying I have a tight budget isn't justice enough. Searching out a new ingredient or food each week might be worthwhile, but it's still hard to say how much my budget will allow of that. Plus, I rent a room, so my access to cooking utensils is somewhat restrained by the limited space, my selection, permissions, and my unfamiliarity with certain things. At the very least I could be doing much better to be more thoughtful in my cooking by actually thinking about what I'm doing rather than just focusing on sustenance. Furthermore, I could be doing better to cycle the ingredients that I know are well within my budget rather than depending on routine. There are some other limitations to my efforts, but I'd rather not mention them right now. More thinking needs to be done in this specific realm.

So concretely for now my determination is to up my efforts in my culinary reading and studying, and to be more intelligent in my cooking endeavors, such as my reading my knife book to see if there's a new cut I could practice on an ingredient. For work my study idea is to study the menu so that I have a more intricate knowledge of the culinary profile of my own employing restaurant, which is something I've been stupidly neglecting and forgetting.

I'm glad I've had this revelation. It may have been disturbing, but it was a needed kick in the pants. I feel my passion growing for my work once more. Hopefully now I can keep myself on track this time without unthinkingly wondering off.