One of the first words most all of us were taught as younglings is the word “Don’t“. And one of the Don’ts – “Don’t play with your food!” has affected our sexuality deeply. It has had greater impact in our lives than almost any other “Don’t” we heard from our parents.
I didn’t always listen to my parents growing up, and fortunately this lesson I greatly ignored. You see, I love food. I have always had a passion for it after I discovered there were wondrous flavors greater than the p’butter and jam samich. I was helping make meals for the family by the time I was 10. I was also fortunate that I grew up with Adelle Davis and Euell Gibbons – healthy foods, pine nuts and Grape-Nuts Cereal.
I still remember when working on my Cooking Merit Badge, the fear that showed in my Mother’s eyes when she realized I had to make a complete meal by myself to qualify for the badge. After that, I gave up comics and sci-fi fantasies for Betty Crocker. Sure, there were some failures, and less then flavorful dishes, but I kept at it. It was in High School that I got my first real experiences of preparing food. While most other teens were making spare money at the local chicken or burger joint, I was prepping food in a dinner and catering house. Dora, the head chef, taught me to broil steaks by touch, how to operate a line, and how to plan and cater for large groups. Two years later, I was learning from one of the top hotels in town- Steak Diane, Chateaubriand, Cherries Jubilee, and of course – the famed Caesar Salad.
I went on to the big city, and found more restaurants to work in. I only stayed at each for a year at most to learn a new cuisine or get under a hot trend. My parents tried to get me to enroll in culinary school, but by then I had already studied intently from the writings of George Auguste Escoffier, Prosper Montagne, Fernand Point and James Beard, and prepared many of their recipes. The early shows of Julia Child and the Galluping Gourmet were- well, if it wasn’t for the recipes they prepared, the shows were as bland as water compared to the shows today.
I was also fortunate that there was a huge public market (Seattle’s very own Public Market) – fresh meats, cheeses, breads, fruits and vegetables – from local vendors and farmers. You name it, you could find it there. I spent many a Saturday morning looking at the foods and dreaming up new inventions.
Well, like most late twenty-ish aspiring chefs, ego became a hindrance; restaurant owners wanted you to prepare their recipes, the larger hotels wanted the top ranked culinary schooled students, and, believe it or not- many of the executive and sous chefs didn’t want to teach. As much as I liked cooking, I decided to turn to technology, and get in on the personal computer and internet band wagon. Although away from the pressure of the kitchen, I continued to learn more and prepared new meals for friends and family. I moved to a 6 acre farm with a fruit orchard, started a large garden with huge variety of herbs and vegetables. Between the grapes, apples, plumbs, pears, gooseberries, blueberries raspberries and quince in the orchard, I taught myself how to make wine and mead, and then started growing hops to make beer. What wasn’t served fresh or turned into liquid spirits, I canned and preserved.
Along the way I also learned how to make and preserve sausage, mastered the smoker and grill, and developed further my dessert and bread skills.
Jump to present day…
Food and sex are words stemming from our lessons of “Don’t”. Essentially the message was taught that food is for sustaining life, and likewise in later years, sex was to produce offspring. Boring!
It has been said for centuries that way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but I discovered that food is the path to a lover’s passions. Having learned how to master the kitchen was my ticket passion mastery. Through out the years, I learned how to bring out the passion of the ladies. Whether it was an evening out at a unique restaurant, catering privately for small parties or weddings, or at home preparing a special meal for two.
A few years back I was chatting on a dating forum. One lady in particular wrote a little erotic story about one of our dates and posted it to me. She asked me to write one back to her. I worked on it for a while, then finally sent it to her. Her response was happy, crying, ecstatic all at the same time – to my surprise. She said I should write erotic stories for a living. Well, it took me quite a few years of business writing to get that right. I knew that one story doesn’t make it a new profession. But I kept at it, on the forums and off, writing about different experiences and fantasies. Some stories were accepted well, and some even better. Eventually the path of writing, dating and passion for food lead me to writing a cookbook.
