There is an old Chinese saying, roughly translated, that says, “It’s better to have traveled a thousand miles than to have read a thousand books.”
Not to knock on all you book readers out there, but there is a certain truth to that old statement. And when you apply it to cooking, is it better to have read a thousand recipe books or is it better to have cooked (and learned) from those same books? Surely you’d agree that the latter is probably much more rewarding, and a lot tastier.
While many of my fellow MasterChef Canada contestants have returned to their everyday lives, some have plunged head-long into their culinary dreams. While I have joined the latter group, I’m taking a different route.
I am not afraid to say it: I am not ready for prime time. While folks like Danny have opened his own food truck, Dora opening up her new restaurant, Josh and Carly burning up the Vancouver food scene, they are ready for it. I however, am not.
In my life, I’ve been known to speed through things. From the time I was in elementary school all the way to now, I’ve prided myself on being speedy. Sometimes, that is great. Other times, it’s caused me nothing but grief from teachers, my parents and even friends. Based on that, I knew that jumping headlong into the culinary world would be a disaster of epic proportions. (Plus being broke doesn’t help matters much, either.)
Above all, I have far too much learning, and too much tasting and experimenting left to do. The first thing I needed to do was to learn never to make the same mistake that got me sent home from MasterChef Canada: undercooking chicken. On the plane ride home, I vowed that the next time either of the three judges would taste my food, they will not get a pink piece of chicken (or undercooked anything for that matter). The question then popped up — where would I learn it, if I wanted to be a pro?
And that is where one Chef Troy Raugust stepped in.
When I first met him, he was the Head Chef at the newly built Fresh-to-Go Kitchen inside the Calgary Co-op in Crowfoot. By the time I met him, I was still looking for my way in the door. He hired me on the spot after talking to him, and within a few days was working in a kitchen. It’s not a completely full-fledged restaurant one, but the work involved in running it is no less intense. From preparing a fresh salad bar, to serving the line, cooking rotisserie chickens to the perfect doneness, and finally to preparing the various dishes being served, it was a lot to take in each day at work.
And somehow, after a few months of working there, I impressed him and the other Chefs enough to have him offer me the chance to be his apprentice. But truth be told, I had misgivings at first. It would mean more schooling (having graduated with a university degree and a broadcasting diploma) — but with my broadcasting career going nowhere fast, it was pretty much a no-brainer. For the second time in my life, I enjoyed what I did for work. Broadcasting is great, but it simply didn’t give me the ways to pay the bills. Cooking had always been a passion of mine, and for the first time it offered a way out of the rut.
Spurred on by my friends, I took the chance. And as they say, the rest is history.
And as I near a year working there, I’ve been blessed to have so many teachers that have been incredibly patient with me and my foibles. My time working as an apprentice showed me not just what I still needed to learn to be the culinary star that I will be, but also of what I am capable of. I’ve made mistakes seasoned chefs would consider amateurish, but on the other hands I have also dazzled those same chefs as well with the skills I do have.
But most of all, I am doing things that as recently as two years ago would never have dreamed of being able to do; like stand in front of a crowd at Stampede Park doing a demo with our new Head Chef, go back to my old alma mater William Aberhart High School and teach not one, not two but three Foods Studies classes, and wow crowds with newly acquired noodle-pulling skills at various markets around Calgary (But those are stories best left for another day.)
So in a nutshell, that is why I chose to be an apprentice. To learn, to grow and to evolve into the best chef and human being that I can be. It might sound clichéd, but it is the truth…and I’m sure as hell sticking by it!
Then, and now…the evolution continues.
The Chef Apprentice's Diary 