This Is Where I Work: The Here and Now

So, I suppose this post has been a long time coming. It has been an amazing couple of months since my last post and I really would like to write about all of it at some point. My problem I find is that my desire to write is problematic, coming in random intervals, and often when I am away from my laptop. For instance, right now its about 2:30am London time and I just woke up from a strange dream that felt so real it was like an anecdote of my life. Some of the finer details of the dream are less important to where this is going but the theme gives it substance. The wave of emotion it induces pushes my mind not to forget like so many other fleeting memories. Of course, the dream was about friends.

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I've often thought that everything that's happened to me in the last little while has been mostly a dream. My life has gone in a direction that would seem extrordinary and necessary in my evolution as a chef. I had always thought of spending time abroad to experience food and the world, to expand my repetoire and see just how far I could go. When you take the time to step back and look at the timeline of your life its sometime easy to forget the biggest factor in all of it: time. In a lifetime, a year or two can be just a drop in the hour glass. The reality of it is much more when it is time spent away from what you find matters most. I feel as though my time here is a necessary step for my career, but there is always a part of me yearning for the comforts of home. It feels as though the thin tether of the home i've made for myself in Canada might snap from the strain of distance. I worry that if it did, I might fade from thought and memory like loose change in a jar long forgot.

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But I am here now, and I have made a commitment to myself to stay the course, wherever it may take me. I've crossed paths with a few of the greatest chefs in the world. I've shared breakfast with Heston Blumenthal. I've met Pierre Gagnaire as casually as I would any co-worker. I've seen, eaten and experienced things that I would never have had I stayed closer to home. And as I take a step back again and look upon my life here abroad, the time melts away and seems but a heartbeat. And all that remains is the memory of all that I've managed to accomplish for myself here and what I hope to accomplish in the near future. I have thrown myself into the ocean. I hold on to my tether with both hands.