A simple diet of love.
- At February 6, 2011
- By Molly Chester
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Home feels so good. I’m going to electronically hop back to England next week (the actual 10 hour flight from LAX to Heathrow in no way resembles a mere “hop”) to tell you about the Fish Course that I took at River Cottage, because I learned too much not to share. But first, I thought it was time for a break and a salad, because I didn’t eat a whole lot of salads while on vacation, unless of course they were covered in chocolate.
This salad dressing started taking shape soon after I began private cheffing. When I scored my first full-time job, my skills were so shaky, poor client. I remember my sister-in-law, Megan, telling me, “Molly, just love them. What you can’t offer them in skill, you will offer them in love.” I ran with that advice, held onto it like it was the last advice on earth. Besides being solid wisdom, it’s all I had. I vividly remember standing in the kitchen of my very first full-time client, who adding insult to injury was also high-profile, staring down at a measly boneless, skinless chicken breast and thinking, “If I can just learn chicken, then I’ll move on to beef, but for now, chicken.“
Oh, I had gone to culinary school, sure… but, you only get a taste in culinary school. I certainly didn’t walk out an expert. And because I didn’t have a plethora of recipes on which to fall back, I was forced to improvise. My lack of skill forced me to rest on whatever creativity I could muster. One of the recipes that sprung from that improvisation is below. Now trust me, I cleaned it up for you. My initial version had a boat-load more parsley for sticking in one’s teeth and also lacked the raw honey which nicely rounds out the flavor. But, it wasn’t so bad.
I made it through that first job, relatively unscathed. Maybe a few dry pieces of fish and one horrible rhubarb soup, but I made it. I definitely burned the candle at both ends, worked hard and cried more than once. But just like Megan said, my client seemed to thrive on a simple diet of love. And in the end, I finally learned how to cook one mean piece of grilled chicken.
Click HERE for the Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette recipe…
xo – Organic Spark
