Choices

There was so much to watch and read about the Queen during the recent Jubilee celebrations that our DVD recorder was working overtime and I still have a pile of supplements to wade through. Last night we watched All the Queen's Horses, a fantastic show, combining music and dancing and horses and dancing horses from all over the world. Interspersed throughout each act was a huge amount of footage of the Queen in various countries throughout her reign. Seeing some of the footage of her in Australia and the subsequent display by the Queensland Mounted Police reminded me of my first ever career discussion. I was to be a mounted policeman when I grew up.

I was about six and living in Melbourne when this mammoth choice about my future was made. I would sit proudly atop my magnificent steed, meting out justice to the criminal types and protecting the honour of fair maidens, whether in distress or otherwise. The fact that asthma prevented me from going within half a mile of a horse conveniently did not feature in any conversations about my choice. Clearly I was being humoured, however I am thankful for that. I think that fantasies should be allowed and even indulged in the young. It encourages a certain imagination and freedom of spirit that can be so lacking nowadays. Both Freddie and Fenella have settled on being teachers. I think Freddie's sudden u-turn from piracy revolved around wanting to be like his older sister. Fortunately her days of being a ballerina were over long before this adoration started!*

I have told myself repeatedly that whatever they both end up doing will be fine with me, as long as they love what they do and it makes them happy. I only hope that I can keep my promise to myself when stuntman, shark wrestler or lap dancer appears on their business cards!

In the intervening years between law abiding superhero and puberty, I can only recall one other choice and that was being a duck billed platypus. The less said about that the better!! When the time came for serious career discussion, my school at the time had invested in rather a smart computer programme that, after inputting serious answers to serious questions, came out with very silly choices, well at least for me. My father was somewhat distressed that such an investment into my education could produce refuse collector as a career choice. I found it rather amusing at the time, however with the benefit of hindsight and the added responsibility of being a parent myself, I can now see the error of my way!

I had always been interested in cooking, did a bit at school and at home and enjoyed the appreciative murmurs from around the table when my food was had. I went to the local sixth form college to do cooking with the ambition of turning into the next Marco Pierre White. There was something about him in his youth, the wild hair, crazy hair and the cigarettes always on the go, that made him somehow god-like to a fresh faced wanna be chef. Two years later, I left college with a distinction (the only one of my career) and an unshakable desire to never set foot in an industrial kitchen again. I have the utmost respect for chefs, the hours, the heat, the pressure that they endure everyday can be hell. What I did leave college with was an understanding of ingredients and the work that goes in to turning them into a first class dish. I love working the front of house, I need the constantly changing faces and relish the challenges of finding solutions to the myriad of problems that can trip you up.

I have worked in a number of different places around the world and have loved pretty well all of them, my gap year did produce some shockers, and I continue to be amazed at what chefs can produce. It is a definite form of alchemy, a kind of wizardly ability to turn the mundane into the glorious. I recently went to Galvin at Windows on the 28th floor of the London Hilton to say good bye to a long term colleague and very close friend. The meal was out of this world and one of the highlights was a banana milkshake. I know, I know, it doesn't sound much, but the flavours and textures in one small glass were phenomenal. I don't know what, other than banana, had gone into it and I don't want to, as to analyse it too much would be to remove the shroud of mystery that surrounds this kind of thing. It needs to appreciated, not questioned.

I adore cooking and do as much as I can at home. I love just creating out of a cupboard and fridge full of bits. I tend to only use recipes for puddings, preferring to create from scratch suppers, lunches and snacks. Most of the time I am successful, however I have fallen down as well. Tors I don't think will ever forget my homemade pesto. I blended up pine nuts, basil, olive oil and garlic, added a load of grated Parmesan and mixed it into the cooked pasta. She was brilliant, pretended that it was wonderful and soldiered on through a couple of mouthfuls. I had never eaten pesto before and thought it was a might overpowering but stuck with it. After a couple of minutes Tors gave up. "Have you cooked this?" "No" "So, raw garlic." "Yes" "How much" "A whole head" "And how much of the pesto is left?" "None" I realised then that half a head of raw garlic on a handful of pasta might be overdoing it a tad! We still laugh about it, well I do, Tors usually just shudders! I now buy jars, it is safer that way. But making mistakes is what enables us to learn and grow. I am not saying that I encourage mistakes, more that they should not be punished, as long as they are learnt from and not repeated.

I shall leave recipes until my next blog, it has been one of those weeks and have lost the will to be creative, so I am sorry to say that it is just my musings this week. I hope they have not sent you all to sleep?

Have a great weekend.

*Freddie announced this morning that he now wants to be an ambulanceman, fireman and policeman all rolled into one. Teaching is apparently only for sisters. He has also told me that at weekends he will be a pirate called Blackbeard, but with a red beard! I am sure he will change his mind again before I actually press the submit button on this post!