Today, my good friend Darsin who is also my occasional uncle agony will be off to New York , his new post will be so extravagant that I feel I would need to communicate with his secretary in order to speak to him in the future. I am happy with my friend’s achievement and I feel so Blessed to have stayed this long in the career I chose despite all the money bet and the talk that I would never stay long in the kitchen , for staying this long I am able to see my friends and still talk about relevant subjects
On my first day in cooking school ... well, I majored in pastry so there were as many girls as the boys there. My studying in the school kitchen years was more difficult than the actual working experience. When you have too many girls in the kitchen... everything is totally centralized into being a woman .All the once a month moodiness and tantrums, tears which I did once in a while, I can’t deny and jealousy , the jealousy were so intense we were fighting over who has the “ reddest “ strawberries for our fruit tartlets, although it sounds stupid ... I, sometimes joined into the bitchingsphere too, some girls just love to pick their fresh produce a day in advance and hid them in their drawer , which is a no cohones “act because you left all the shitty produce to us, your classmate later... because of my ability to raised my voice up high and because I told them that I was sent to anger management class few the gossip spread pretty quick , but later I learnt that they actually laughed at it behinds my back, Azura ... that angry? Never!!! Even at the earlier stage I love to do things my way , I am definitely not a text book or a competition girl, I worked more with my left hands therefore no doubt I am a bit odd there , I learnt techniques from text book s just to come back tomorrow and try to improvise it and later be shouted at by the Chef for trying to be a champion by changing what was meant to be standard procedure-recipe whatever .
When we have boys and girls in the same class we cannot avoid the hormonal issues , few have dated , few got engaged and maybe one got married to a chef husband and quit cooking to take care of their babies in the beautiful part of Devon(yes... I will visit soon x) I had my fair share of briefly seeing(very brief) a chef too and it wasn’t fun when 2 narcissist went for a meal together, we start to get really competitive and it was too dangerous for our friendship at the time , both has to be right all the 24/7,This I thought would be a lesson to not go out with anyone in the same class or workplace. It wasn’t the best idea because we all know my way of doing things is better than his .Nevertheless, it was a puppy love and we laughed at it! Now, when it comes to think about it... it wasn’t even love, it’s just two friends who sees more of each other and talk about dreams and racing to reach their dreams. Today I am glad that we did not proceed with the direction we thought we want to go, he is a successful bloke turning himself like me got into hot cooking and running a starred restaurant (yes, I will visit too).
Then here come my work years , earning tiny money and dreaming of eating at the finest of restaurant s , back in Malaysia ...we only managed to do the late night Indians, KFC and the occasional Greek or Italian supper, I said to my friends that one day I can go to the most expensive restaurant and eat all the caviar, truffles... anything I want without even thinking about the bill .It is funny how small our circle really is the guy who used to cook at the Greek restaurant we all used to go to, he now runs his own tapas place and still, I found out and brought few friend from the past kitchen over and it felt like yesterday where we talked, laughed and make fun of other crew in the kitchen. I am glad to be treated as equally as the boys by the bosses and fellow cooks. Maybe one or two assholes decided to harassed me with sexual innuendos and abuses, but the real men in the kitchen always backs me up and stayed by me throughout the most difficult and complex time for me. When I thanked a friend recently for what he had done for me like when he and the boys stood up when an asshole was being an asshole, he said that he didn’t back me up out of sympathy, that’s because I am such an asset to his team and he wants me to stay and be happy, doesn’t matter if he lost an asshole like that asshole because the chauvinistic asshole did nothing but talk shit and shook his legs .
NOTE: Mr Asshole was transferred to another kitchen called Alcatraz kitchen and quit the scene few months after I left and no one knows or wants to know where he is now.
The story above are among my experiences dealing with men with no moral values and no love in his childhood, they feel like when someone is in the kitchen and she got breasts , they can try to make her feel small , asking me to go back to my house and cook for my husband is not very motivating b but with that being said no one laughs at his joke except for himself including the cucumber, the virginity and the if I would go out with you questions was never entertained by me for that my brain is slightly bigger than his. I know that no matter when , this part of my career line will never be forgotten while writing this ,I can’t believe all the verbal abuse I had encountered with some people , and I won’t even ask where I got this courage to go on with cooking, because I know the rest of the boys( they are all very successful now) were always with me offering me kind words and backing me up through the perfect soufflé time or the burnt béchamel time.
While going through my mental DVD, I fast forward it to come to our current situation , we are all very far away from each other. When I passed by the places we used to cook at , the places we used to hang out at - reminiscence of all the laughs and jokes we spilled .But my friends , the chefs, brothers who had stood up for me and supported me through the worst time of my life.. People who accepts you the way you are and yet loves you. No matter where you are we will see each other at the place we dream about...The top that is , for now let me have my cake and eat it too because at the end I worked really hard to bake it.
This was a written on my way to Singapore, I am flying afternoon and Darsin will be off to New York via Abu Dhabi at night....Have a good one my friend, and bring us a beautiful bride soon.
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