Book Excerpt
White House
Technology Center together. After
we graduated from Johnson &
Wales, he had decided to pursue
his culinary career in Europe. The
firstborn of Irish emigrants, Gerry
was able to return to his parents’
home and reclaim Irish citizenship.
Once he had an Irish passport, he
could easily move about the
European Union and find work. He
began in an Irish restaurant, and
soon had an opportunity to work
at its sister restaurant in Paris.
Gerry had been urging me for a
good while to come to Europe and
check out the culinary scene. He
kept writing to invite me for a visit
or to try working over there. He
persisted, and I began toying with
the idea. I even started saving up
my nickels and dimes and
moonlighting to earn extra money,
and in six months I had saved
enough for a ticket.
Off to France
Finally, in 1984, when Gerry wrote
and said, “John, you’ve gotta come
over and give this a try.” I decided,
Yes. I’m going back. I wanted to see
that next level — the things I’d read
about in books, the things I’d
experienced a little on that first
trip to France. I wanted to try to
develop something out of that.
Little did I know that it was the
perfect time to do so.
And, my previous two-week
culinary tour of Britain and France
helped me feel adventurous enough
to head out on my own with just my
backpack, a one-way ticket, and a
guide to youth hostels.
Looking back, it wouldn’t have
worked if I had made an extended
European trip right out of culinary
school; I wasn’t prepared enough.
But after working for a while, and
taking the trip over there when I
was twenty-two, I was more mature
and knew a lot more about cooking.
I wouldn’t have had enough
experience to do that the first time
around. In fact, the teacher who
took us over there in 1981 had said,
“If anyone wants to stay here in
France and get some more
experience, we could change your
ticket. You could go to almost any
restaurant here and they’d take you
on for a little while. If you want to
spend the rest of the summer here,
then do it.”
Just one person did, and she was
back in less than a week. I’m
emphasizing the point that if I had
stayed, it probably wouldn’t have
been long before I’d have come
back. I wasn’t ready to turn a trip
like that into a work experience.
At twenty-two, however, I was
ready for it: I’d had some education,
and could go into a kitchen with a
fuller understanding and not be
completely green. Most
importantly, I had learned the
basic disciplines that go with
working as a chef in a
professional kitchen. If you can
show chefs that you know
something already, they’ll take
the time to show you more. All
the chefs I worked with were
impressed at the fact that I
wanted to learn, and they also
recognized that I had some
learning behind me, so they
were willing to add to it.
I met up with Gerry once
I arrived in Paris, but found
living in the city a bit too
expensive. After a week, I
took a train toward Nice in
the South of France, and
decided to stop along the
way to explore the
countryside. I told Gerry,
“I want to see what’s going
on down there, and I’ll be
back who knows when.”
I got off the train at
Dijon, about halfway to
Nice, and headed to the
local tourism office, where
I followed my usual travel
routine: find shelter for
the night, and then figure
out my food for the
evening. By the time
I located the tourism
office and collected
some brochures to help
me find a campground,
it was four in the
afternoon. My French was next to
useless, and I needed a place to sit
and read the brochures. Literature
in hand, I went outside and sat
down to have a cigarette. A young
man approached me and said
something in French. I just looked
at him and asked, “Do you speak
English?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Do you have an
extra cigarette?”
I shared a smoke with him, and we
chatted for a few moments. I found
out that he lived nearby, so I held
up a brochure and asked if he knew
where the campground was. He
nodded. “How do you plan to
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get there? It’s at least a fortyfive-minute walk. Are you traveling
by yourself?”
“Yes, I’m alone. I just got off
the train fiftee