Cooking, not Cooking

I didn’t really cook at all through my teens and into college. I don’t know why exactly. I still loved food. I never missed a meal if you know what I mean. But I would just eat what was near me. If I was with friends, I would eat what they were eating. One of my favorite experiences in college was going to Ahmed’s Falafel Shack in Carbondale, IL. I was attending Southern Illinois University. I did not know what a falafel was. I grew up on burgers and hot dogs. And I had never really had hot, spicy food. But there I was at Ahmed’s. I was getting dared to eat the hot sauce they put on it. You could get just a little or go for broke. Someone said I probably couldn’t handle the hot sauce because I grew up in the suburbs. Well, that was all the challenge I needed. I went for it. I loved it! I loved the falafel. What was this thing of such tasty delight? Why had I never had this before? It’s true, the suburbs of Chicago were mild to the extreme. The hot sauce we had tended to be the stuff that comes with your burrito supreme at Taco Bell. In other words, not hot at all. Ahmed’s hot sauce was different. It was garlicky and somewhat creamy. It burned but with so much flavor! It hurt so bad, but I went right back for more. It wasn’t long until I was a regular at Ahmed’s for falafels. I became quite the connoisseur. To this day, I really love Lebanese and Middle-Eastern cuisines. But we just didn’t cook at all in college. I was in the dorms my entire time at Southern.

After college, I may have dabbled a bit in mom’s kitchen but I was on a fast food tip for a good long time. When I moved out of the house in 1984 and took an apartment in Lincoln Park just North of downtown Chicago, I still didn’t cook. I lived above my means eating and drinking too much at restaurants and bars. We ate quite a bit of pizza too. It didn’t have to be good pizza either. When I arrived in Lincoln Park in the eighties, I had been working for Midway Airlines for a few years as a flight attendant. I was on the road most nights and dinner was provided by the airline through per diem. We could pretty much eat anywhere we wanted to. But now and then we would get hungry on the airplane. Our airline didn’t have hot food for service. It was just peanuts (yes, it was that long ago) in the back. The “First Class” passengers got what was called a bento box.  The black plastic box had dividers to compartmentalize the foods and it had a fitted top. It had been designed by a famous Japanese chef here in Chicago. There were no Japanese elements to the food in the bento box. It was just some cheese, meat and crudités. There may have also been a soft roll in there as well. It was pretty minimal and pretty sad for the price. We would often have many of these meals left over because people didn’t want them or the caterers put too many on the flights. So us flight attendants came up with an idea. We didn’t want to eat the tiny portions of meat and cheese cold. We came up with a plan to make a hot sandwich. We didn’t know it at the time, but we brought the panini to air travel. Keep in mind, we have nowhere to cook on the airplane.

The coffee makers on an airplane, specifically the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, are flat surfaces that the coffee pot sits on while coffee is being made. You can also get just hot water for tea if you like. This was our flat-top griddle. We fashioned sandwiches with the rolls, meat, cheese and some mayo taken from hotel room service carts. Then we jammed them under the coffee pots, pressing the bread into the “flat-top”. They were pretty thin so they didn’t take long to cook. But the smell was good; so good passengers started asking whether we had hot food on the airplane. We of course said, no that would be silly.

“Enjoy your bento box!”

We would stay in the galley of the airplane enjoying our hot sandwiches. They were crispy, crunchy and dripping with hot cheese. I think those experiences on airplanes and trying foods from around the country that rekindled my interest in cooking.

While I had been flying for a while in the 1980's, I ate out almost all the time. I grabbed a sandwich here and there at home. I ate in restaurants in the cities I layed over in. I ate my roommates pizza from his parents pizza parlor. (It was amazing pizza which we kept a full supply of in the freezer at all times) But I didn't really cook at home. One day while flying across the country, I saw a recipe for stuffed veal chops in the airline magazine. Current day Tom probably wouldn't do a recipe from an airline magazine. But 1985 Tom did.

I tore it out and vowed I would make it for my friends. I didn't know that veal chops were so expensive. But I really wanted to try it. There was a great meat market on Halsted Street called Geperth's. It was a German butcher who cut the chops for me. I don't remember exactly how much the meat cost but it was north of 50.00. That was a lot of money for 1985. It's a lot of money now. I got the chops home and proceeded to follow the instructions. My friends were coming over that night to have dinner with me. I would think that today I would find this a pretty easy recipe to do. But back then making the stuffing, cutting the chops open and stuffing them took hours. Where did the time go? It took me forever. I very carefully seared the meat in a heavy pan and then finished the cooking in the oven. I made a simple pan sauce with white wine and I was pretty proud of myself.

My friends arrived to try my culinary triumph. We sat down to enjoy the chops. Then one of my friends, Donna, asked very politely what I was serving with the chops. Oh no! I had neglected to make any vegetables to go with the chops. I just had chops on the plate! Thanks for noticing Donna!

Not exactly chef behavior. We enjoyed the chops and had a good laugh. But that was my first dinner party. Just veal chops. Nothing else. Needless to say, I can put together a full meal with sides, salad, entree and dessert in about 2 hours now. I have progressed as a chef since 1985. I truly enjoy planning a great meal for friends and family and I think I'm pretty good at it. If you struggle to get your timing down, try making just the entree and move on from there. Collaborate with friends or family to make an entire meal. Soon you'll find you'll be able to get everything out at the same time and tasting great!