Luxe Beat Magazine JULY 2014 | Page 99

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 2 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