Earlier this year, I started this blog with the intention of writing regularly (at least once a week) about the things that occupy my mind, the things that I am most passionate about. So far, I've written seven posts (not nearly as much as I intended to do...) that were all about politics and the NHS. Don't get me wrong; they are important issues and I am very passionate about the NHS but it is not what I am most passionate about.
Children are often asked what they want to be when they grow up. Depending on their age, most children will answer something along the lines of mommy, policeman, fire fighter, dancer, teacher... My answer? That went from: 'I don't know' to micro-biologist (until I found out that you need to be very good at physics) to archaeologist to 'I don't know' to chef to baker and back to 'I don't know'. There were several other options in between but those are the ones that stick out most. Children eventually decide on one or the other, go to school, get their qualification and don't look back. By the time I reached sixteen, I decided that school just wasn't for me and I started work (not advisable) thinking I would figure it all out that way.
Work encompassed everything from working in the local brewery, the pub and various restaurants, to working for a poultry factory, major manufacturing company, construction company, fire safety company. The type of work I did was just as varied: planner (from routes to events to staff), cleaner, secretary, administrator, baker, (pastry)chef, line worker. After twenty years, this has taught me a few things:
1) it is easier to get a nice job if you have qualifications or plenty of work experience,
2) I am a lousy employee (I tell my manager when they are wrong about something,
3) the only job worth doing is the one you enjoy or are passionate about, and
4) I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up
The one thing I enjoyed more than anything else was cooking and baking. Even as a young kid I would cook and bake (with or without the help of recipes) and my size will attest that food is my biggest passion. And so,
thirty (or so) years after that dreaded question I can finally say: 'When I grow up I want to open up my own food place. Not a restaurant or a bakery, but more along the lines of a small bistro. A little place where people can come for good, honest food. All home/hand-made and nothing frozen. And it has to be everything from the best burger ever to fresh seafood, and toasties and fresh baked goods such as scones and hearty steak pie.'
That is what my husband (a former trained chef and butcher) and I will be working towards; enough money to buy a little place on the Yorkshire coast where we can start for ourselves.
For the blog it means a shift in the kind of articles I have written; from politics and the NHS to the one thing that makes my heart race and my mouth water: food, glorious food. The next posts will be all about my favourite food and recipes. I hope you will like them as much as I do.
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