For the Love of Food!

I've been pondering this post for weeks, letting it fully form.  Now it's time to let that creature out.  I recently dipped my toe back into the dating pool thereby forcing myself to somehow explain, repeatedly, my obsession with food. How do you make it sound sexy, not gluttonous?  How do I not come off as a snob what with the term "foodie" being used the same as "fancy pants" and "hoighty-toighty"?  What if he really digs Applebee's and Bud Light and won't budge from such tastes?  Can physical attraction overcome such a thing?  To this last question, in my case, the answer is no.  Not if said studly companion isn't willing to explore, be adventurous, step outside the mainstream box.  But I digress.  The point is, what I came to realize after all of the far too many first dates is what my love of food truly is and how best to explain it. It's a hobby.  A hobby I am fiercely passionate about but a hobby nonetheless. Stay with me, allow me to elaborate.

Music is, was, always will be my first love.  Like it is to so many of us, it's oxygen, water.  I cannot exist without it.  I committed my education to it.  I thought my career would be in the industry.  Alas, it wasn't for me much like cooking professionally wouldn't be.  My former fiance, his badass chef soul resting in peace, often admonished me, telling my I'd missed my calling as a chef (lovingly admonished, to clarify).  Some people are meant to grow their hobbies and passions into a career.  I am not one of those people (though I must throw in that I have a fantastic career that I am very passionate about). I'll just be the best fangirl I can be.

Enough blathering.  The gist!  I relate music and food very closely. Two of my great loves in life.  I collect recipes and favorite restaurants as I do albums.  For the many McDonald's pumping out crap for the masses much like meaningless music purveyors, there's Rooster & the Till taking deep care and mixing ingredients like Mozart to create a masterpiece.  I compare chefs to composers and producers; musicians making magic with their bare hands.  As most, yet not nearly enough, already know, food is art.  It can be beautiful, powerful, transcendent, soothing, nourishing, life changing.  Done wrong it can be ugly, sickening, sad, life ruining.  Hate to break it to you but that dude at Subway isn't really a sandwich artist.  Choose your artists wisely, people!

Many things led me to this post, in large part defending myself from being considered a food snob, as I've been referred to far too often and I know for a fact several of you have as well.  My most recent defense was I'm not a food snob, I'm a food lover.  I like a tiny, hole in the wall mom and pop as much as a fine dining establishment because food done well and with love is the same in any environment.  Ambiance, service, many other factors of course contribute but at the end of the day if the food tastes amazing that wins above all.  I avoid chain restaurants not because I'm fancy or pretentious. It's because you don't get the same love, passion, and thoughtfulness you get when it's a family risking their livelihoods, a team putting their all into each dish; these people who choose to devote their lives to feeding people and doing it to the best of their ability.

I've decided this year to devote much needed time to my hobbies, find a work/life balance, which means I'll be writing more you lucky reader, you!  In no time at all I'll be back to sharing my foodtastic adventures with you, loaded with pictures (admit it, we all skim for food porn!).  Thanks for sticking around for this peek into my mind. I know it wasn't easy but I promise to reward you post-haste!