How a duck landed me my first cooking gig

It is either the wine or the stress talking. But what started as a simple idea advertised with the insurance no one would take it seriously just took a turn, for the best, or for the worst. Sunday night will say.

We have to go back to last friday, before I got wasted. Somewhere between a beer and a plate of sushi, I started talking about my ultimate ambitions of becoming a chef and owning own restaurant. I was making small talk about food and Sushi and such things. For some reason -blame it on beer- I mentionned my idea of being a home-chef to help make the end of the month easier and afford that 1400$ kitchen table and bar stools and that new blender/food processor combo. Some type of kitchen mercenary, hired for special occasions and birthday dinners, armed with knifes and pans, taking charge of everything while you and your guests are enjoying the wine and things like that.

We were talking about that and well, they seemed to think it was a joke. In order to prove me wrong, they would at least exprience one of my concoctions. Well tonight they were invited for dinner. They needed proofs? Well proofs there was. The menu was fairly simple, still impressive enough :Pan-roasted Duck Magret with Grain Mustard, served with Butternut Squash, Carrots, Pumpkin and Shallots mijoté with herbs. Job was done by 1900 hour, Duck was marinating by 1915 hour, Wine was in carafe by 1918 hours and Butternut squash and pumpkin were chopped by 2009 hour, a couple minutes after the guess has arrived.

Then there was the duck incident. Ducks are fat. Like half an inch of fat. and fat slightly tend to render in the bottom of the pan. And mixed with mustard grains, tend to get smoky. As in appartment filled, smoked detector beeping smoky. In the end It was only fat burning and it never, duck remained pink and juicy and oh-so-succulent. The smoke out, dinner and wine served, we were chatting. Then the cat came out of the hat. None of the people invited have ever tasted my cooking. And all the people invited where interested in throwing a birthday party on sunday night. They were testing me out and apparently I got A+ (see they are all teachers and trainers).

What I didn't know about the evaluation is that it would come with a gig. Sunday night, I'm doing cooking at first birthday party. Cheese and Bread, Mussels, Grilled fish and wine. They paycheck is nothing to write home about but it is all about building my name. I starts big before I make it big. This is the story of how a duck landed me my first cooking gig.