i’ve taken my first step into hell
Strap in friends, this is a mini opus
I hope you’ve noticed, but once in a while I mentioned Gordon Ramsay.
Picture it, Sicily, 1933 (n. Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot). The finale for Hell’s Kitchen with Rock vs. Bonnie. Trained, diligent, entirely focused, smart and consistent against the ultimate home/professional cook in waiting just off culinary school and a fire purely for cooking. While I was pulling for Bonnie, I don’t think that winning would have been the prize for her as it is for Rock. I felt a connection to her keeping that brain in wait for a few rounds, feeling that she was a gifted kid, probably out-thinks herself in a lot of cases and for all of her extensive vocab skills still curses up shit so nasty it gets cartoon @%^*! subtitles.
She’s going to have a lot of doors open to her now just from recognition and may have an easier time transitioning that into whatever career it will be than starting in the hotel kitchen. She seems more apt to run her own, smaller restaurant or being a teacher in the long run…just a hunch.
So, Rock turns the handle and shows over. In the credits, the announce for anyone who wants to try out for Hell’s Kitchen to check out the website. Sent in my request for the information and two weeks later, there’s a casting call in Ft. Lauderdale for the show. Fast forward to this past Saturday, I’m up at 8 for the Farmer’s Market, up till 4 am for Panetta’s bachelor party :
Won $45 at the Seminole Casino with $2 Red Stripes. Ate, drank and made fun of Alex at Charley’s Steak House with a Veal Porterhouse and one of those seafood fancifulness plates se incluyo king crab, steamed shrimp, calimari, scampi, boring seared tuna and stone crabs. 2001 in Tampa is strange as it’s no liquor with a 1 drink minimum. On the floor of a La Quinter.
please join me for the home stretch