From the category archives:

Jacob Galbraith

Summer

by Jacob Galbraith 06.01.2010

In my pre-cooking years, or “back when my hands were beautiful”, summer meant what I assume it means to most everyone else: rapidly melting popsicles, the _____ (body of water), and fun. These days it means at least 4 months of feeling like the aforementioned popsicle, and feeding more people than the other 8 months [...]

2 comments Click to continue…

Young Man’s Game

by Jacob Galbraith 04.29.2010

Last month I turned 26 years old. That’s 20 years as a normal human being, plus 6 spent in front of the stoves. In the sun with the rest of the world, I’m still a young man with plenty of time to figure things out. The florescent lights of the kitchen, however, shine less favourably [...]

9 comments Click to continue…

Fresh Meat

by Jacob Galbraith 04.12.2010

There is no situation more precarious than being new in a kitchen. It’s sort of a guilty until proven innocent scenario. We’ve seen your resume, and chances are there’s some questionable stuff on there. In spite of the stint at Weeny Wagon, you’re invited spend a day with us on your own time. If you [...]

4 comments Click to continue…

Conspiracy Theory

by Jacob Galbraith 03.26.2010

Collusion in the Kitchen
When the majority of one’s waking life is spent in the clutches of professional cooking, one gains a certain familiarity with the feeling of having a big fucking target painted on their chest. Within the confines of a kitchen, we cooks are textbook examples of conspiracy theorists; it comes with the uniform. [...]

1 comment Click to continue…

Strange and Bitter Fruit

by Jacob Galbraith 03.10.2010

A few weeks after using Urban Diner to host my very first public airing of the “c word”, I’m bringing you some thoughts on a big old “b word”: bitterness. What follows may come off as bitching, but what I’m trying to do is explain the expression that’s permanently painted on every weathered cook’s face. [...]

10 comments Click to continue…

Sgt. Sous Chef

by Jacob Galbraith 02.25.2010

For a long time I was under the impression that when someone becomes a sous chef, they also become an asshole. As if by some kind of bastardy witchcraft they just transform on the day that they got their promotion. This isn’t the way it works.

5 comments Click to continue…

Word Fluffers

by Jacob Galbraith 02.11.2010

Like most cooks, the first food writing I ever got a hold of (and took hold me) was Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. That book kick-started a quest for more of the same, finding only more of Mr. Bourdain’s gospel but not much else. It’s nice to read words about what you do for a living [...]

3 comments Click to continue…

In A Kitchen On A Saturday In July

by Jacob Galbraith 01.26.2010

The day begins with an assault on the senses; the sun pokes you in the eye with its pointy fingers, while the compost bins gang up on your nostrils. You’re in the alley. The rest of your body is sore from the previous nights’ service, 150ish hungry people pillaged your village, leaving you with almost [...]

5 comments Click to continue…

Free Labour

by Jacob Galbraith 01.18.2010

Young me had it all. He worked 8 hour days, took lunch breaks and had more free time than he knew what to do with. When young me wasn’t feeling so well, he would take the day to recover and watch The Price Is Right. Young me thought he was awesome, but I think young [...]

3 comments Click to continue…

Diamond Juice

by Jacob Galbraith 01.04.2010

I hate my own cooking. It wasn’t always this way; in the beginning I loved everything that I made, regardless of how disgusting it was. After six years of assaulting my unsuspecting palate with countless taste tests, it is extremely difficult to find merit in anything that I cook. Not because it isn’t any good, [...]

8 comments Click to continue…

← Previous Entries