Recession my rear...my rear is in recession!

I won't insult you by saying my ego doesn't drive much of what I do. When I create a pastry, a huge part is that an idea is in my head and needs to come out. But another part is my need to hear someone say, "Wow!" That feeds me. So why do I say this? Well, honestly because its the first lead in that came to mind.

You see, business has been good. So good that I can't do the frequency of posting that I normally would here. And so good that I'm not getting to play nearly as much. I started cooking full time last August, and I've been working hard to improve my skills and consistency ever since. During that time I would get a comment or two daily about how much someone loves my food, but two weeks ago something changed.

A big change was the weather. Its warm now and folks can sit outside to eat at lunch. Our dinners have also caught on and more people know that we're doing dinners-to-go. The result is a doubling of my workload. I'm having to be even more focused, more efficient and less whiny.

And what's cool about this is the number of positive comments I'm receiving now. About one out of every three customers actually makes the effort to tell me how much they enjoyed the meal. Like they'll seek me out to tell me. They'll come in the kitchen while I'm throwing green chile against the wall to tell me. It feels good.

Today someone said to me, "This food was so wonderful. The meal was really a blessing. Thank you." How cool is that?! And I get that daily. I didn't expect this type of response - this emotional connectivity between me, my food and my customers. But its there and its great.

What I secretly want to say is, "If you think these sandwiches are good, you should come to one of my dinners." But that would be pretentious, wouldn't it.

Cheers.
(stay tuned - my big peanut butter exploration is almost finished and should be a fun post...maybe this weekend.)