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Emulsion
[ih-MUHL-shuhn]
a mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly (like oil and water); an atypical combination of two things
After a year of blogging on EmulsifiedFamily.com, I have come to love the name “Emulsified Family” and feel it’s the perfect way to describe our family (and probably many of yours.)
Why?
I’m so glad you asked!
Let’s start off by looking at it from a culinary perspective. Emulsifying is a delicate process. It needs to be carefully prepared. It requires ideal conditions (temperature, balance, interaction, etc). It won’t hold together forever unless it’s cared for, but can be repaired if it breaks.
Have you ever tried to make mayonnaise? If you just throw all the ingredients into the blender it’s not going to work. (Maybe it would work with a Vitamix. But in my Oster blender . . . no way!!) But if you take your time and carefully follow the correct procedure, you’ll get something that is far better than what you started with. All the ingredients on their own are fine. But together, they can be AMAZING.
Do you see what a perfect term this is to describe the family of a chef?
- Restaurant and family life do not normally combine smoothly. It takes a lot of work!
- Our emulsified families are delicate. They need to be taken care of and not ignored.
- There has to be some sort or balance between work and home or the family will not stay together. With the long hours a chef works, there needs to be communication, interaction, love, etc. or the marriage and family will not hold together.
- While the individual family members might be great on their own, together as a family they can be AMAZING!
- Even though it’s a lot of work, if something “breaks” in the marriage or family, it can be repaired, just like an emulsion.
This is our family, our emulsified family.
Restaurant life and family life do not combine easily. It takes a lot of delicate work to figure out how to put it all together. Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in the air because I’m frustrated! But no matter how hard it is, I know it’s worth it. We are better together than apart.
I’m so happy to have connected with so many other chef’s families because of this blog.
I hope you’ll stick around and continue to comment and share as you work on your Emulsified Family as we work on ours.
From one Emulsified Family to another,
–Tom, Jennifer and the girls
