What they don't teach you at culinary school

When I graduated from culinary school in Marseilles three years ago, all my friends starting calling me chef. Somehow it made me uncomfortable, because as a fresh graduate with only four month-long internships under my belt, I was a novice, or commis, which is at the very bottom of the kitchen hierarchy in France. I later realized that in other countries such as the United States or the Philippines, one could potentially be a chef straight out of culinary school.

Now that I am about to become the chef of my own kitchen and my entire staff of one, I am realizing that though I learned an awful lot from my course, very little of it has been applicable to my journey in the Philippines, opening my very own place with my husband. For example, what are you supposed to do when you find out that garbage is only collected once a week on your street? Or when you realize your street is so tiny it is not even on Google maps? These are just some little things (not so little really) we have been dealing with these past few weeks. Add those to the fact that the renovations are nearly a month behind schedule, and on top of that the earthquake that shook the Visayas last week and whose aftershocks still keep taking us by surprise… well, we were looking for an adventure and we certainly have found it. On the other hand, the place is looking great, more and more like a real establishment… now all we need is to start cooking in it!