Speak Up

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Turn Off the Chef

Now I know this one can't be happening to just me. Do your husbands/boyfriends ever come home with this heightened sense of speediness or aggression? They may snap at you, bang a couple pots and pans around, or be generally grouchy. If this is the case, your chef forgot to unwind on the way home.

Last night Erik came home and was cooking, but you would have thought STOMP was performing in my kitchen the way he was tossing around the pans. Then, I called him from our bedroom- I was going to remind him to check on our son who has been sick. Erik comes back to the bedroom and says, "Why did you call my name?"

Uh, say what? I was expecting, a "Hi, Honey" or "Hey baby, how are you feeling?", maybe even a "Can I get you something?". I'm 8 months pregnant, remember. This was just not Erik.

And what do you know? He told me the entire way home from work, which is about 45 minutes on a couple trains, he was making lists for work. And as soon as he walked in the door at home, he grabbed The Art of Fermentation. (he's working on 12 different kinds of tofu.)  He was the one who said, "I didn't really unwind tonight, I think I was still in restaurant mode." No kidding.

These high strung chefs absolutely need time to relax and decompress after working. I think most people probably need that, but it's different with chefs. They spend 12 hours expediting, shouting, giving orders, arguing with vendors, tasting, interviewing, crunching numbers, and furrowing their brows. They have to check that stuff at the door.

Erik should go back to playing Candy Crush on the train. Things were sweeter then.

Food is Love,
Hilary