I started this second blog on January 1st, 2009 as a way to document our daily work in the kitchen. It just seemed like a cool way to kick off the year, another outlet apart from the other thing I have going. I had no grandiose plans at the beginning, but I quickly realized how punk rock it would have been to post every day for a year. Of course, that was a huge challenge that I didn’t even come close to meeting, but I’m proud of what we put up here, and I know by the traffic it sees that it remains a useful resource for people.
I could certainly continue on with this basic concept forever, but I like the idea of shaking things up a bit. I realized recently that my library of books, the filing cabinets full of recipes and notes, all the sites and blogs bookmarked on my computer… They are all sadly under-utilized. I realized that the way I work has become insular in a way, that although my repertoire is vast enough, I’ve begun plagiarizing myself, simply mixing and matching old components in new ways. Or it’s the opposite, where we find ourselves attempting to create something out of thin air. I’ve lost that sense of excitement that a young cook has when browsing a new cookbook or magazine. The new is always exciting, but so too is re-discovering something from the past.
So I propose a new idea for the Workbook. I’ve always been quick to offer due credit to my inspiration in the past. But I think it would be cool to start a series of posts where I blatantly ‘rip-off’ those dishes and chefs that turn me on: the pastry equivalent of the cover song. It might be a random bit that I pull out of the mountain of material disguised as my bookshelf, or it might be something I saw or tasted from someone that I think you should know about. Not exactly a Julie/Julia kind of thing, but more about the process of discovery, the interpretation, the learning experience, and of course, the homage.
I can’t promise a year’s worth of this, nor should it be assumed that the intention is to add the results to our menu. I may share the recipes, I may not. Rather, like any good cover song, it’s simply about the joy of playing someone else’s riff. I get to sift through all my stuff, and it’s a practical way to share it all with my staff as well. Like any good cover song, there’s an element of surprise. Who knows what I might lay on you, and what unexpected source it came from. Like any good cover song, it’s paying respect to the original, and hopefully, introducing the original to someone who might not hear it otherwise.
Thanks, as always, for checking in.
