Originally published June 2017
Mr. D* is waiting for me on Monday morning with a big smile on his face. He is the only one in the room, happy to be there.
We make small talk about the weekend. He's lost his phone, and tells me about it while I line up folders on the front table then turn on the computer and hit the button to turn on the overhead thingy that works with the touchscreen that I absolutely don't touch because it never goes right. Once everything is set up for lecture I can turn my attention to Mr. D*. He can tell I'm no longer distracted and asks, Did you think I forgot?
Nope! Let me see!
He flips open his notebook and shows me page after page after page of neat handwriting.
Me: This is your story? The one you want me to help you tell?
Mr. D*: Yes. And a recipe for Beef Wellington. With pate.
Me: OK, I will have this typed up for tomorrow.
Mr. D*: You sure about that?
Me: This is important. We only have a few more classes together.
Mr. D*: Alright then, go ahead and do it.
I put his notebook in my computer bag and make it through two lectures on the 1850s.
When I get home I can't help but pull it out and put it next to my laptop and start typing away.
The Art of Cooking, By Mr. D*
And then I read something I couldn't type, and then something else.
It is so, so, much.
I think maybe I shouldn't put it all out there right now, not yet, not this way.
Mr. D* ends his story with a three page very detailed recipe for Beef Wellington with liver pate.
That gives me an idea....
(Continued)
Mr. D* is waiting for me on Monday morning with a big smile on his face. He is the only one in the room, happy to be there.
We make small talk about the weekend. He's lost his phone, and tells me about it while I line up folders on the front table then turn on the computer and hit the button to turn on the overhead thingy that works with the touchscreen that I absolutely don't touch because it never goes right. Once everything is set up for lecture I can turn my attention to Mr. D*. He can tell I'm no longer distracted and asks, Did you think I forgot?
Nope! Let me see!
He flips open his notebook and shows me page after page after page of neat handwriting.
Me: This is your story? The one you want me to help you tell?
Mr. D*: Yes. And a recipe for Beef Wellington. With pate.
Me: OK, I will have this typed up for tomorrow.
Mr. D*: You sure about that?
Me: This is important. We only have a few more classes together.
Mr. D*: Alright then, go ahead and do it.
I put his notebook in my computer bag and make it through two lectures on the 1850s.
When I get home I can't help but pull it out and put it next to my laptop and start typing away.
The Art of Cooking, By Mr. D*
Is this beginning or the end? I was a cook and baker for over 40 years, I have fed King Hussein, Mohammed Ali, 5 Governors of the State of Florida and over 5,000 students at Florida State University and Florida A&M. I was the baking manager at Bruno's Food Story and also the kitchen manager at the Holiday Inn and chef at Ramada Inn and the chef and baker at The Bread of Life My grandfather was a baker and my father was a cook. I went to Amos P. Godby and Lively Tech and got certified in cooking and baking from 1972-1974. I knew early that cooking and baking are an art, and I enjoyed the career buy I had some setbacks in life.
And then I read something I couldn't type, and then something else.
It is so, so, much.
I think maybe I shouldn't put it all out there right now, not yet, not this way.
Mr. D* ends his story with a three page very detailed recipe for Beef Wellington with liver pate.
That gives me an idea....
(Continued)
