Reflection - Sky

A chef is a chief cook, someone who has complete control of his or her kitchen whether it is in a restaurant or in a person kitchen. Yesterday before going to Studio-kitchen, I was under the impression that Shola was not a chef. In my mind I thought that in order to be a chef, he had to have his own restaurant, however after our trip my opinion shifted. I realized that innovation and experimentation is more important then the business side to being a chef. Shola had the leadership qualities and artistic abilities that are part of being a chef, and in my opinion even though he may have lacked the qualities that were needed for him to open his restaurant, he still has the necessary qualities of a chef. My parents are very similar to this situation. My dad started his own business roughly 10 years ago and published a daily newsletter. However without my mom, he would not be able to publish his work as she takes care of all the management and organization of the business. Just because my dad was not able to take care of the business of his work he still was able to become a successful analyst and writer. Because of this perspective I think that if Shola were able to connect with someone who had a more stable foundation of business, he would easier be able to establish his restaurant.  After coming home yesterday I must have spent an hour showing my mom and sister pictures and telling them in intense detail about my fascination with Shola's work. To add to my interest in his field, the food that he produced with unlike anything I have ever eaten, it was incredibly delicious and I am pretty sure that I could have eaten an entire pizza! I was fascinating by the induction pot and the engineering behind the magnetic attraction. I also loved the pasta making I thought it was so fun to watch the dough squeeze out like playdough. I also found it amazing when Shola poured liquid nitrogen into the bowl and then was able to form delicate membranes around the meringue. I was talking to my mom a lot last night regarding whether or not he should open a restaurant. At first I was certain that his food was unlike anything else and that if he opened a restaurant he would be incredibly successful. However my mom explained to me, that in order for a business to be successful you need to establish regular customers and the problem with Shola’s business is that it is an experience, something someone would do once and then maybe once again for a special occasion. And because of this my mom and now I think that his studio kitchen and pop-up dinners are the best way for him to run his business because it allows him to share his creations with others but not have the stress and concern of running a restaurant.            As far as I am concerned there is no easy part of the job so I strongly disagree with the article published about Shola’s work. Shola, while he may not have to apply his business skills or leadership qualities as often as a chef in a restaurant may have to, still has the stress and work to constantly change and innovate.  While we were there someone in our group asked if he was currently working on an invention and he responded, “oh of course”.  One other thing that Shola said I really liked was when he explained that in order to call his work perfection, he needed to experience all forms of experience to truly call his work perfection it needed to be relative to his perspective.            Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I thought it was really exciting to see a real molecular gastronomist.