About me
My first real cooking experience was when I eighteen. A friend's mother was manager of a Lum's restaurant (you must be at least 40 to remember these), and he ran the place on Sunday afternoons, when almost nobody came in. He hired me to try me out as a grill cook, with practically no training. Guys don't like to admit they don't know something, so I pretended to understand what I was supposed to do. He was pleased, and I was amazed, to find that with several orders in, I wasn't losing my mind like our other friend Bill had. The french fires were coming out fine. An order for two steaks came up, and I took them out of the refrigerator and set them on the grill. They started cooking, but smelled odd. Soon, David came out from the back, looked at the steaks, got an exasperated look on his face, and asked, didn't you see the plastic wrap sealed over the steaks? You have to take that off! I thought that it was some bovine meat membrane--what did I know? I'd never handled a steak before. Needless to say, my career at Lum's was short-lived. I am happy to say that my kitchen skills have improved since then.