This is Susanne Dillingham today.
When I first met her, in 2004, she was a tiny 18 years old girl attending the professional culinary program and I was one of her teachers.
One day the lesson was on "cleaning the cuttle fish and extracting the blak ink bag to utilize it in a sauce".
It is not the easiest job....actually, if you readers are curious, can get an idea of the work watching this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM8OZNfnG8Q&t=443s
Each one of the 12 students had a cuttle fish at their station and they, besides listeing to me, could see "the surgery" through the mirror above my head.
Their expressions were like:
- oh, my gosh!
- How gross..!
- I could never do it...blah!
Eleven voices just freak out.
Not a sound from Susu's ( her nickname) desk.
Not a sound until she finished.
She lifted up her "black" hands ( from the squid ik) and she screemed:
- OH! HOW FUN! NEVER DONE SOMETHING SO FUN!
I WANT TO DO THIS EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE!
She did perfect job since the first time.
Susù is a renowed caterer and cooking teacher since then, that is just after the school, when she went back to America, in her warm Charlotte in North Carolina. We have been staying in touch all this time and still we do. She gave to herself the name "the TIny Chef".
The second story I want to tell you regards Che Spiotta.
I met him last January in Up State New York, He and his family where not sure he would have been admitted to "Master Chef Junior". But then he was. He won. He came back to visit me after his victory, last July. I have already written about this in my post:
I want now to focus on his smile, on his passion, on his calm way to face a competition. On his particular love for creativity in the kitchen. This part of his aptitude is what made him to win. He HAD FUN.
Thus,"fun" and "inner calm" seem to be the key for success in the kitchen. It is what I wish to you all:
Keep Calm and Carry on Cooking with Fun
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