The art of the sous chef
It only took 6 months of failed recipes to realize that to be the sous chef is just the place for me. I can skim over the nitty gritty recipe elements that often trip me up, I can enjoy the energy and tastes of the kitchen without the pressure of performance, I can handle discrete tasks that require limited focus but keep me in the action, and a watchful eye can keep me in line.
Today’s stack is the story of the perfect sous chef moment, under my favorite head chef, Tara. We set out to make a cherry pie for Father’s day (the quintessential Howard dessert). Head chef through and through, Tara set us up for the perfect cherry pie and even added into the vision a bramleberry crisp ice cream, at 37 weeks pregnant no less. I had to sit down more than she did.
The perfect first sous chef job: pitting the cherries. Tara did so ever so precisely cutting them in half and popping the pits cleanly out — as Howard would say each smooth as a baby’s bottom. I took a lazier approach of carving around the pits with one cut and leaving about half the cherry on the pits as I went. On average, I also probably ate at least one fifth of the cherries as we went. An important role for the sous chef is continual taste testing.
Then pizza arrived for dinner and things went a little fuzzy as the sous chef took a well-deserved break from pitting and head chef kept going at the stove making our cherry compote and simultaneously starting the blackberry and raspberries for the brambleberry crisp. (To be fair, head chef is in a non-dinner eating holding pattern, I’m not a total monster.)
When I got back in the action, we were pouring cream and milk for the ice cream and I used the liters side instead of the cups side in my measurements. Fortunately, head chef caught my mistake in time to do some quick conversions and keep us on track. Head chef mentioned the likelihood of a pending baby brain and I wonder if I might already have it?
Next we learned how to do the pie lattice on the counter before placing it on top of the cherry pie. Apparently this is the proper protocol — who knew? A welcome change from my typically haphazard layering of mismatched sized strips of dough on top of the pie.
Again I got distracted by heart-melting baby clothes and some additional steps went by unnoticed with the pie suddenly in the oven and the ice cream churning in the ice cream maker. My next big task was crumbling the nature valley bars in a big ziplock bag, so that they could go in the ice cream maker for the swirl. I nearly took things too far by really smashing the bag to smithereens before head chef gently interjected that the bigger chunks were actually some of the best.
And finally, I enjoyed the pleasure of heading home to bed before the ice cream was even finished. Leaving the chef who is 37 weeks pregnant to finish on her own you might wonder? Such is the prerogative of the sous chef!
Alas under head chef’s direction, both pie and ice cream came out as perfectly as predicted and there was no gut-wrenching anxiety as people took their first bites at the father’s day celebration. To be relaxed and enjoy two bowls of ice cream mid-day on a Sunday with no cares in the world — this is the life and privilege of the sous chef!
So the substack challenge of the week: lean into your sous chef moments and let the lessons and zen wash over you. Enjoy the moments where you can skim over the surface without being bothered by the furious paddling underneath. Amidst weeks of all kinds of work stresses and unavoidable responsibility, the sous chef lifestyle is an important one to cherish!
Perhaps most importantly though, don’t forget to shower head chef with all the appreciation and love they deserve. She is going to be the very best mom! <3
