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26
April – June 2014
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
By Chef Mark Anthony
mas.onward@gmail.com
Note:
My sister Rita Caruso
of Discovery Bay (a loan officer
by trade) has “chef ” in her blood.
She got the cooking-bug from our
late grandma Pauline Fredenberg
(Nani), and recently decided to
continue (in her downtime) her
longtime goal of becoming an
amazing, bonafide chef. So I con-
nected her to Chef Mark Anthony,
a friend of one of my writers and
pastry chef, Noreen Nagao.
He’s a 33-year tenure Culinar-
ian and touts a personality that
blends the style and culture of the
many places he’s worked and lived,
from San Francisco and Santa Fe,
to Paris, France and Cape Town,
South Africa. He says he’s “an
eclectic one who doesn’t have any
one particular style, rather a strong
foundational love of food and the
vast cultures behind them.” Rita
sent him an email soliciting advice
and below is what he wrote.When
I read his email to her (she shared,
I didn’t snoop) I thought, WOW.
What if our readers feel the same
as my sissy? If this is the case, then
bon appetite on this piece.
To begin with Rita, I suggest
taking your brain out from the
corporate environment where you
worked and drop it into the cess-
pool mindsets of the people and
the industry you’re considering
(don’t laugh, its true).Read a book
from a great chef ’s perspective
like Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitch-
en Confidential.” It’s a book that
should be read by everyone in the
industry. It is absolutely hilarious,
while at the same time, absolutely
pure truth.
If it’s the Culinary Arts you are
looking to get into, we must first
break down and separate the two
words for a more clear under-
standing.
Culinary:
This is the easy part and also the
most difficult. The cooking part,
well that’s easy. But it’s the depth
of your knowledge of all food
and food stuff, and learning how
to bring together all five of your
senses coupled with that knowl-
edge.This will take time and I dare
use the word “years,” but I must.
It’s scientific; not just knowl-
edge of what tastes good together.
Why food does what it does when
cooking it and knowing what to
do, if it must be fixed, especially
“on the fly.” (Kitchen term mean-
ing hurry up, high step it or move
your ass.)
It’s physical; good knives as
well as good knife skills must be
acquired and learned (again years).
So prepare yourself in this process
of learning to lose tips of fingers,
shave off your fingernails, stab, cut,
slice and burn permanent scars on
your hands, fingers and arms. Keep
in mind that you’ll be expected
to stay, regardless of how bad you
think it is or how much it hurts.
You can go to the doctor on your
time, not theirs. (Did you laugh
when I mentioned war earlier?)
You can forget about manicures,
long fingernails and polish, or jew-
elry in or around your hands, in-
cluding bracelets, bangles, etc.
Arts:
To be in the Arts, you either are
or are not an “artist.”When most
hear the word artist, Van Gogh,
Renoir, deVinci and Monet come
to mind.Yet all of which had some
crazy quirk about them. Artists,
sadly, are an extremely passionate,
egotistical often misunderstood
bunch.They walk a different path
in life, if you will.
Chefs outside the kitchen are
seemingly normal human beings,
however, put them in a kitchen
and something quirky happens.
You’ve put a brush in their hands
to paint, and paint they do; signing
their name to every plate, menu,
banquet, event and/or function.
Do it differently than he or she;
expect to hear about it; nor should
you expect hearing about it in pri-
vate, or in a tactful manner.
Don’t verbally retaliate; there is
an old saying in the kitchen:
#1)The Chef is always right
#2) If you don’t agree with
the Chef, refer to number 1
You’ll be entering into a fam-
ily full of the most dysfunctional,
drama-filled, very colorful charac-
ters of all ages and maturity levels
you will ever meet.
The word professional.... yeah,
Santiago, a dear friend from Mexico City, was instrumental with touring the port city
of Progreso Yucatán, locating the docks for us to purchase a fish “FOB” from local
fishermen to have for dinner.
So You Wanna
Be a Chef eh?
Before dipping into
the pot of stew …
read this first
Photos courtesy of Chef Mark Anthony
DELTA DINING