Naked (Chef) Zoe II

I've been cooking lately. Not just cooking... creating! It is nothing short of a miracle either. You need only walk into Restaurant Matisse and ask any individual working there. They will verify this declaration!

They are famous for many things (Matisse), but one of the most temping is Le Gateau Chocolate. It's pure, unadultered melt in your mouth goodness. And so, one fine day in May several years ago, I attempted something both rash and reckless: copying down the recipe (I had to bribe people), I set out to make this glorious cake.

The end result was... tragic actually.

I was devastated. What went wrong? The next chance I had, I asked Chef (see note) what I possibly could have done wrong.

"It was like a deflated cowpie," I cried, looking truly forlorn.

Reading over the receipe I had written down he asked "Did you beat the eggs until white?"

"I beat them," I answered.

"How much did you beat them?"

"Well, it says until they are white... but they are already white... so I didn't really know what that meant... I just beat them a bit... till they were all milky. Milky white!..."

[note: old habits die hard... even after the Queen is not the queen, she will still be the "queen" just as Chef will always be Chef... ]

I am an embarrassment to the kitchen. Food, like music, is one of those things that doesn't need to get adventurous (re: I listen to the same CD over and over until it is rendered completely useless). Once you perfect a dish there is no need to get to crazy perfecting more. I am a whiz a lasagna, having made it for every dinner party, potluck, etc for the last 8 years.


I was meditating over this the other day, absently kneading pizza dough to make calzones.. no wait! Calzones? Since when do can I make Calzones?


And in Japan of all places! Shouldn't I be making sushi? Perfecting the art of slicing Sashimi just so?

Perhaps it is in the absence of all my favourite restaurants and food that I have stumbled upon this new-found passion. Then again, I HAVE been working in the restaurant industry since I was 16...

Whether from bereavement or scarcity, I am a chef!