… Another Expression of Art
I've been asked various questions revolving around the same issue, “Why did I choose culinary?” I have to take you back a few years to explain why. I grew up loving art; drawing, painting, writing, sculpting. I enjoyed various art classes. There were new elements to explore, and new ways to explore creativity. My interests jump from one artistic perspective to another trying to find a niche to enjoy, animation to architecture, painting to photography. At one point, I even explored music, family funds didn’t leave much for encouragement.
In high school I took studio art and computers trying to guide myself into an art career with computers. My instructor suggested computer aided drafting and finished with that class. I didn’t care much for it; being allowed to be creative was limited. I left high school with no clear goals or plans. All I had to work with was a passion for art.
I went from high school to college focused on art. I didn’t get a lot of help on focusing myself just feeding my present interests, and passions. I took studio art, for that was all I knew. By year two, I started thinking how am I going to make money from my paintings; I figured out that the best way was to teach. I don’t have anything against teaching, but I felt I was too young.
I had worked a year in the cafeteria and continued into the summer. By then, I had a fair reputation and could get away with bombarding the cooks with questions and watching them work. My duties included dishes and cleaning the tables. During the summers, the school catered to special functions and fund raisers. It was one of these fundraisers that a conversation seeded the idea for a culinary pursuit. This revelation didn’t occur for a few years. The fundraiser was a food auction to raise funds for maintaining a park for local artist to display their work. I would watch the cooks work when I had a free moment. I was captivated by the shapes, colors, and textures in the food the cook had prepared. One of my professors passed through the kitchen and I addressed her,
“You know artists would make interesting cooks.” Referring to the shapes and colors.
She replied with “yeah, but the food wouldn’t taste good.”
As brief as that conversation was, it impacted the route my life took.
I failed out of school; grades, money, life and lack of focus, the usual causes for such events. I took the opportunity to take a break and travel, I moved from the Syracuse area of New York, to see family in Texas and Oklahoma I had yet to meet.
I visited Oklahoma off and on for about five years. Working a range of restaurants; fast food to a full service. Somewhere in the middle there was a restaurant that was family owned; the owner/cook was a person just a year older than me. He showed me a portfolio of catering spreads, desserts, and fruit carvings. I saw him as an artist that made food look good and taste good. I started bothering him about cooking and he started teaching me things about food and about the industry.
After awhile the restaurant closed and I decided to go back to school. I found a focus. I moved to Texas and a friend helped me get situated enough to go to school.
So why did I choose to go with culinary? How many art fields allow you to entertain the senses the same way well prepared food does? The sizzling from the kitchen as food is prepared, the arrangements of colors and shapes, the texture of food against your tongue, the succulent flavors dancing across your taste buds entertaining with its entire flavor, the aromatics seducing your sense of smell when it is presented to you; what other medium out there could entertain so many senses?
"A musician must make music,
An artist must paint,
A poet must write,
The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art”
