Welcome to Cheftimony
Talking to chefs... and sometimes lawyers. That's Cheftimony in a sentence fragment. Hi, my name is Graham MacLennan, and I've worked for years in kitchens and in offices, with chefs and with lawyers. In both places, I've worked with people who love food. They love food for its history, for the skill and respect it demands and for its power to bring people together - across tables, countries and generations.
But there's a problem. These chefs who devote gruelling hours and years to their food, who manipulate ingredients with creativity and skill, are simply too busy. And that's a shame, because kitchens have stories, lots of them and good ones. Too often those stories stay in the kitchens.
A chef's work is social, but not in the way you might think. Chefs work long hours in small places with very few people, over and over. The chefs and and their teams create amazing things during preparation shifts, before restaurant doors open. While many restaurant guests meet the chefs, they don't usually see those preparation shifts. Not many hear the stories that cooks share with each other while they prepare for dinner service. Diners get the end results, and in great restaurants they get great results. And that's... great. Truly. But there's much more going on.
In Cheftimony, my aim is to bring stories out of kitchens. Of course I'll ask the chefs about their food, but it's the stories that interest me most. I want to hear from chefs about the successes, the failures, the supposed-to-be-fresh fish that arrived frozen rock-hard, the encounters with health inspectors, the joys of online reviews, the continuing challenge to keep food costs at a profitable level, and the importance of staff meal – that wonderful time of day when cooks and servers and dishwashers sit down together to enjoy a simple meal made with the leftovers from preparation.
And about those lawyers... So many lawyers I've met harbour secret ambitions, secret talents. They may be tax experts, savvy litigators or corporate gurus, but they're also guitarists or screenwriters or... chefs. Some lawyers really are chefs, having left kitchen life behind for life in law firms, and many more are food enthusiasts and critics. They may not have as many kitchen stories as the chefs do, but they most definitely have opinions about food, restaurants and culinary trends. I'll talk to them too.
“Talking to chefs and sometimes lawyers, but always to people who love food.” That's Cheftimony. It's not just about food and it certainly isn't about law. Cheftimony is about people.
Next up... When I started running from a law office every Thursday afternoon to cook in a restaurant, and how I met the person who, to me, will always be…Chef.