I bumped into a local guy at the grocery store today; someone who recognized me from Sonora Grill. Out doing some Sunday family grocery shopping. We each introduced our respective families to each other and then we talked about cooking and specifically about making a roasted tomato, garlic, jalapeno salsa…and he was getting ingredients with which to make the salsa…we just had a good chat.
I grew up in a high population density type location, so it’s taken some time to adjust to the one-on-one that sometimes occurs in Ogden…my social skills need a bit of work. I was grateful for just being able to talk to someone about Mexican food. Just being a chef. Being able to eat as much food as I possibly can and then never getting too fat…A chef really doesn’t eat as much as folks might imagine. We’re too busy running around cooking. Another opportunity to be grateful; I get to go to work in the kitchen almost daily. It has truly been a blessing. Thanks, grocery store.

Well, snow is upon us. I can feel it in the air. It hailed like mad last night downtown. I just live several blocks from the restaurant (which is quite convenient for when you need a fix of some awesome Mexican food). They opened a new coffee place down by the Sonora Grill. It’s nice. The cold rain and the coffee, ahhh…it all reminds me of a time when I was a younger Executive Chef in Portland, Oregon. I had a good time in the Pacific NW… Making Northwest style food, like salmon and berries and hazelnuts and spring greens and whole lambs and all that sort of thing…hitting Grateful Dead hippy comunes type organic farms on Sauvie Island on the weekends…kind of had that green culture vibe in Portland. I think it exists here in Ogden too.

The company I worked for, McCormick and Schmick’s had sent me to Seattle to be the Executive Chef at this Seafood joint downtown. It was an awesome job, for sure. I loved every cold and wet, coffee-drinking minute of it. I can handle rain. Snow, that’s a little tougher…

Anyhow, the company loved me, respected me, and sent me to the big city to basically be the Hatchet Man and fire everyone in the restaurant, one at a time… It’s a hardcore business for sure…I recall standing there in the Seattle drizzling mist, across the street from the restaurant with a paper cup of Starbucks coffee in my hand and a cigarette in my mouth, thinking…who am I gonna fire today? Which one of these poor guys is going home without a job today? and then I’d walk in and cut someone’s head off…after several years of that, I was ready to quit smoking for sure…I did too!

Did anyone see the travel channel’s show No Reservation with Anthony Bourdain in Mexico City? Man they were eating tacos like there was no tomorrow! They were eatin eyeball tacos! But then the bullfight in Puebla. I don’t know if I’m for the bull or the matador…I’ve been to Mexico, but I’ve never been to Puebla. If anyone’s going down there and wants to sport for my ticket and put me up for a few days or something…I could be quite entertaining! We can eat mass amounts a tacos! My favorite are the tongue tacos. Unfortunately, I recently had some at a particular taco truck in the vicinity that were…disappointing, let’s say… I’m a bit of a Bourdain acolyte. It’s true. But who doesn’t love to go places? Seriously, hook a chef up with a weekend in Mexico! I got my passport and my Spanish is still pretty good…