One Mike Stand
One Mike Stand
The phone rings and a voice from the other end asks me if I could write a piece on movies where food is the theme. The direction and concept of the task seem to be unclear, “an article on ‘food movies’ and why people in the ‘industry’ love them?” “Food movies?” I think to myself. What classifies a movie as a “food movie?” The voice on the other end starts to pour fourth an amalgamation of movie titles, like: “The Joy Luck Club, and Babetts’ Feast.” I cringe at the idea. Estrogen and subtitles I think to myself. The voice continues: “Big night, and Soul Food, “Better, getting better,” I think to myself. Girl on Top “I’m in.” He continued to throw ideas at me, and some of the idea started to get me thinking about the truth in what he had said. Resturant people like watching shows, and movies about the cooking world. It somehow became cool to know about cooking. I can’t tell you how many times people have said to me, when they find out I’m a chef. “You’re a chef? Oh my god you have to cook for me sometime.” Does that ever happen in any other profession? Like you’d ever into run into Mike Tyson and try that with him. “Oh my god you’re a boxer, you’ll have to punch me in the head sometime.” But it is true. people love cooking, and people love to act like they know something about cooking. They have to throw some little comment into the conversation to let you know they know something about the trade. “Yeah, made dinner for the wife and kids tonight. Spent most of my day blanching and shocking.” Yeah, I get it you cook. But what is it about watching the shows that makes us all feel apart of “it?” I still find myself watching shows and going, “huh, I didn’t know that.” And “I do that too sometimes.” There’s something about watching these movies and shows that makes us all feel part of a common knowledge. And just like anything in life some people know more than others. But the difference is that in cooking, there’s always a knowledge there that people have to instinctively know. Eating. You can’t avoid it.” It just kind of happens. And what is “It?” That thing that makes us think we can remodel our living into a 70’s lounge in an hour after watching trading spaces. The thing that makes us think we could kill Bobby Flay in a cooking contest (in Asia or the