A Room Full of Foodies

I have always been fascinated by the phrase "an 800 pound gorilla in the living room." It is such a funny expression, and I guess despite its obvious, albeit figurative meaning, I have never quite understood it's meaning completely. However, in the last two years, I have developed this odd Pavlovian response when hearing the expression. My response is to look around the room aimlessly, believing that my puzzled look would actually produce an 800 pound gorilla lounging on a chaise of some sort.

Last night I took a food writing course at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) and somewhere between the class beginning and the class ending, I figured out that the 400 pound canary in my room is me. Lately, my feelings of disinterest, distraction and, often times, complete indifference about work, feelings of which have gone completely ignored, are really signs that I need to be doing something other than monitoring a public hearing on the recent bed bug invasion in New York City. While the subject is concededly concerning, my notes from the hearing only reflect the ingredients I needed for the recipe I chose for dinner that night. So has the elephant in the room all this time been my craving to cook, bake, create recipes, come up with fun food-related story topics and of course to write about all of it?

The students in last night's food writing class were all like-minded gourmands. They loved food, the ingredients, the recipes, the eating experiencing, the dining experience and writing about the story behind it all. For the first time in a while, I didn't feel like there was an oversize animal of some sort hanging out in a small living space. It was an inspiring experience, which I am hoping will lead to some creativity on my part to do a lot of more cooking, a lot more baking and a lot more thinking about my professional future!

Until next time…