I can remember my very first dinner, cooking with other chefs. It was in 1990, the very first Cuisines of the Sun, with Norman Van Aken, Bradley Ogden, and Robert Del Grande. I was the youngest, and the least experienced and known amongst all of them. I had only read about them and heard about them, these were some of the chefs I looked up to and respected highly, and still do.
All of a sudden, I find myself at an out of town James Beard Dinner and look around, it's like holy...... , I think I am the senior guy here. I was. One of the chefs came up to me and mentioned, "you are an old pro!" he recanted immediately, "a pro" is what I mean! I laughed at him, said don't worry about it. It was very refreshing, to be amongst the new generation of chefs, and good for me. You can always learn something from everyone, and I did. I love to travel, and to see new things, and meet new people. The things I remember most are the moments we create between people, the times we share, the things we talk about, and what we learn from each other. I thought it was a great dinner from start to finish, kudos to the young ones. I feel so old now, but you know what, that's ok.
We have mentioned that the average age of our farmers in the USA are sixty years old and aging nicely together, no one mentions that this generation of chefs are soon approaching sixty if not already there. In Andre Soltner's time, you were still at the stove, the times have changed, and the che'fs life is prolonged by building a business around the restaurant. It takes you away from the stove to tend to a lot of other components of the business to stay in business. I enjoy what I do today and I enjoyed doing this dinner with a bunch of talented chefs who are passionate about their craft. I can only learn as much as I can moving forward, keep teaching the younger ones, keep true to the style that got me here, and add a few things in along the way. Travel more, study more, meet more people, and keep cooking.
