Hugabugga

Look, we can’t help it. The professional kitchen is a high stakes pressure cooker and if you screw up it could be a small thing, or it could be a huge thing, and you won’t know till you get there. So Chefs do have their traditions surrounding things— and will absolutely insist that you follow these nonsensical norms, or else. You want to cook in their kitchen? Then don’t bring down bad luck on the house by being a nob, dammit. Just as sailors don’t “whistle up a storm” there are things never done in a professional kitchen. If you are feeling it and say, “Wow, tonight is going to be a cakewalk!” silence will fall, everyone will turn and look at you, eyes hard, damming you in advance for the hell you have just invoked. You can say things like “we’ve got this, I’ve got a good feeling about this service, let’s have fun, this is gonna rock…” but to say its going to be easy? It will piss off your compatriots. You’re lucky you get off with just a hard stare and some cursing.

I’ve actually been thinking about kitchen superstitions as of late, for an upcoming “Chefs Newsletter” to Clarita and Rossana. I send these every now and then, long form letters just talking to the both of them together about different subjects — kitchen life and culture, norms, expectations, things they can do to prepare so they can be ahead of the game going in, if only a little, safety tips, history, notable Chefs to be admired — there was one newsletter on Chef Jose Andres and his venture, the World Central Kitchen (WCC) and how he is using his prestige to help others; I admire the hell outa that man. A different newsletter was about the Pavlova (desert) and its evolution, how it was created in honor of the legendary ballet dancer, the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia about it, thoughts about finding inspiration, tips on presentation and baking, lots of photos, etc etc. Anyways, you get the idea.

One classic Chef superstition is:

“Giving a knife makes a cut in the friendship.”

You never accept the gift a knife, you give a payment, even if only a token, to the person giving it to you. I’m actually pretty religious about this tradition, since *every*single*time* someone has given me a knife the friendship later ended. When my friend J.P. gave me a knife a couple of years back I insisted on giving him a token amount of money for it. He was bemused, I think— given that I’m always chattering on about scientific breakthroughs and such, it is an odd quirk. But one learned the hard way, in a hard kitchen, in a hard profession. You can take the Chef out of the kitchen, but you’ll never take the kitchen out of the Chef.

I like that the chefs profession is a pack of pirates, with its own taboo’s and certainties. Strong personalities are drawn to it, people who thrive in stress, people who are deeply individualistic and creative. Chefs are, as a rule, stubborn, territorial, opinionated and quick to the draw. How could we not be a superstitious pack of old biddies? Come on now. Being a Chef is an old, old calling, part of the history of humankind. I love the small traditions because they remind me of the history of my profession, the roots are everywhere, if you know where to look. I think the first food business, archeologically speaking, that has been found was a diner, with a counter top, a few stools, a grill and a Bain-Marie (crock pot). This was in Iraq, and it’s 5,000 years old!

Check it out here

Doesn’t look like much now, but back in the day I bet it was hopping!

I just found this cool archive on superstition’s, the Superstition Library. That looks like it’ll be fun to go down the rabbit hole in, I’m gonna check it out.

Thanks for reading, peeps. Do you have any work related superstitions of your own? Genuinely curious!