I don’t want to brag, but in the past few months I think I have really mastered the art of annoying my chef/husband in the kitchen. There’s a chance I always have done this, but lately, I seem to be getting better at it.
I am so good at this in fact, that last week I called him on the phone the day before his day off to ask what I could do to help make cooking in our home kitchen easier for him. His response was, “Oh I don’t know. It’s fine.”
Although he doesn’t complain, I know him well and can tell he gets frustrated easily when cooking at home. I expressed my concern and told him a couple things I was working on for his next day off. I’m not sure if those changes made a difference or not, so I’ll just make a joke about them while I continue to work on it.
While the kitchen at the restaurant is “his” kitchen and runs smoothly with everything in it’s place and properly labeled, I guess that means the kitchen at home is “mine” since I do the majority of the cooking, shopping and cleaning. It’s not easy cooking in someone else’s kitchen, especially when they don’t think the same way you do about food and don’t “live” food every second of the day like you do. I get that. I’m just not exactly sure how to solve this “problem.”
So over the past few months I’ve worked hard to compile 6 easy ways that you too can best annoy your chef/husband in the kitchen. I hope this is helpful to many of you! (more…)
The hours are crazy and always changing, but harder than the long hours, is the last minute change in schedule. While my husband is the Executive Chef (and currently the interim General Manager) of the restaurant he works at, that is a ton of responsibility. So if something comes up and it happens to be on a day he is scheduled to have off, he works. Obviously there are others in the restaurant that can handle a lot of things, but sometimes, it has to be him.
Last Friday was a perfect example. He was scheduled to be off, but a last minute meeting came up and he had to go in for a few hours (with 2 1/2 hours commute time as well.) 🙁 (more…)
We all know chefs work long hours and come home exhausted. There have been many nights when I’ve been woken up by something and been surprised that Tom was not home yet. I usually call him to make sure he’s OK and then go back to sleep. There have been a few later than normal nights this last week as he has worked 7 days straight with very long hours. One of those nights I had some very vivid memories from a few years ago. Ugh. . .
August 1, 2011 was one of those late nights. I woke up around 4 am and realized that Tom was still not home. I knew he was going to be late that night, but 4 am is no longer late . . . it’s early. I called and he didn’t answer his phone right away. My mind started racing about what could be wrong. He finally answered his phone and said, “I’ve been in a car accident. I know I got off the freeway, but I’m not sure where I am. I’m OK. I’ll call you right back.”
Then his phone dies.
Seriously? We all hate it when our phone dies, but this has to be one of the worst times for this to happen. (more…)
What’s it like to be married to a chef? Here are some answers to the questions you have asked or have always wanted to ask, but never had the courage to!
Does a chef cook at home?
When he is home, yes he does. The key part of that phrase is “when he is home.” His cooking is better than mine, plus I think it’s easier for him to work in the kitchen than to figure out how to floss a 4 year old’s teeth. 🙂 I do cook occasionally, but he usually ends up stepping in and taking over (which I prefer.) I don’t expect him to cook, he just does it. (See this post about his recent time at home and cooking and also this one on cooking for family and friends.)
Last week was mid-winter break for our kids AND my chef/husband took the week off! I can’t even remember the last time that happened. No email (OK tons of email, but email notifications turned off), only a few texts, 1 voice mail. . . I probably should go into the restaurant and corporate office and personally thank his staff for this. 🙂
So I guess the answer to the question “Do chef’s get vacation time?” is yes.
It’s not always easy to find a good time to take it. For his restaurant, right between Valentine’s Day and the start of Dine Around Seattle was perfect. It also happened to line up with mid-winter break for the girls! Yeah!
So after reflecting on an amazing week as a family, here are 10 things that happened:
1. We had so much fun together as a family!
I was a little nervous about what it would be like to have him home for a week, as there have been many times when things have been awkward, the kids have been strange toward him because they haven’t seen him much, etc. (More on this another time.) But our week was AMAZING!!
I don’t want to brag, but in the past few months I think I have really mastered the art of annoying my chef/husband in the kitchen. There’s a chance I always have done this, but lately, I seem to be getting better at it. 
