The heat in the kitchen

This post is not some kind of influencer thing. Or me copping a few bucks on the side from the good people at Home Chef. Though if they wanted to throw some complimentary meals my way for singing their praises, I certainly wouldn't turn it down.

This is more about me returning to my roots.

Allow me to explain. 

Weeks after joining my current company I was made aware of some their excellent employee benefits. Including discounts that were just too good to pass up. And since the pandemic started more than a year ago, we have cut down on our trips to the supermarket.

That became alarmingly apparent when, as a last resort, dinner consisted of canned tuna fish, kidney beans, and loaf butt toast. And so, finding ourselves facing empty cupboards and a refrigerator full of nothing but beer and various flavors of habanero hot sauce, we took the plunge and became subscribers to Home Chef, a prepackaged meal delivery service. 

I should add a premium service.

From our first boxed delivery, we were sold. 

The ingredients were fresh. The menu, diverse. And the preparation, simple but not without flair. Sure, some of the meals took close to an hour to prep and cook, but they, everything from Pan-Seared Chicken and Shallot Sherry Beurre Blanc to Country Fried Pork Medallions and Pepper Gravy, were delicious.

Over and above that, the dinners got me back to the kitchen. 

You see long before I started my career in copywriting, some 8,931,762 words and 227 Tent Sales ago, I was in the restaurant business. Starting as a Fry Boy at Jack in the Box (where Rte 59 and Rte 45 meet in Spring Valley, NY) all the way to up Sous Chef at Charmer's Market in Santa Monica.

Here for posterity, are all the kitchens I worked in:

Jack in the Box

Dairy Queen

Brockway Dining Hall

Denny's 

Uncle Sam's Bar

PJ's

Valle's Steakhouse

The Vineyard

Good Samaritan Hospital

Red Barn

Sutter's Mill

The Good Earth

Kickers

Merlin McFly's

TGIF

Cheesecake Factory

Hop Singh's

At My Place

The Golden Spoon

Charmer's Market

Holy shit, my brain hurts. There were probably a dozen more places but I'm on limited coffee intake and can't remember them all. Suffice to say, I knew my way around the kitchen. And knew many ways to sneak off into the walk in fridge to stealthily drink free beer or do whippets when the new whip cream arrived.

In any case, I want to thank the Home Chef people, and again if they want to throw me some free meals for the free digital ink, all the better. 

Last week, I made a demiglaze sauce. I can't remember the last time I did that. 

No, literally, I can't remember.