Restaurant Oddities in Pictures

These are a few favorite images from my culinary life in the past year. I love to find unexpected beauty in the everyday world, especially the sometimes grim world of a chef's daily challenges: clogged floor drains, discount produce, decrepit second-hand equipment, wasted food, inter-staff friction, wacky customer requests we chefs strive to satisfy. All of these "issues" have a shiny side somewhere, like a dented-up roll of aluminum foil.

What the. . .?

Pool of Water Near Ice Machine Exhibits Strange Rainbows

Biofilm?

"My God, it's full of stars."
(Or maybe grease. . .)

Superior Technique Salvages 50 Pound Blue Pumpkin

People who cook always say that big squashes have no flavor. Baseball-bat zucchini end up in the compost every summer in many a garden. That big jack-o-lantern never really makes a pie worth eating. . .

Well, maybe that's because we don't treat them right. Squashes seem to start out from the blossom packed with flavor which gets less intense as they grow. It's like the water that helps them balloon in size dilutes that original charge to a low and disappointing voltage. I happen to have a Prodigious Pumpkin from my friend Mike at Harvest St. Louis. . .

. . . Which gives us the opportunity to practice one of the Cook's Maxims: Remove Water to Intensify Flavor.

Will it work?

Milestone: First Appearance in Print

Work hard enough long enough in a town of this size and people will come to know you. . .

Well, that has worked for Dave Bailey anyway whose coattails I am happy to ride on. The good thing about being one of the Go-To-Guys in the Bailey's Empire is that I get assignments such as: "submit 3 recipes representing our restaurants, have them tested, typed and sent by the end of the day."