# If you where not a Chef



## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Hey,

Just thinking..What would everybody like to do if they where not Chefs or Foodies.

When I was a kid I used to stand in front of my mirror in my room and play the tennis racket like I was Hendrix or Clapton...
I always fanticised about being on the stage in front of my adoring fans.
I also wanted to be a disc jocky, I have the perfect FM radio voice and always thought that would be the coolest thing.
If I had my choice now I would be involed with wine. I would love to be a wine maker.

There are so many things I want to try in my life. maybe I could be a guitar playing disc jocky that makes wine on the weekend.

cc


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Good one!

As a kid, I dreamt of being an olympic swimmer. 

My other career, on a more realistic level, would have to be in the fitness industry. If I didn't fear the regret of leaving this field that I adore, I'd definitely become a certified trainer. I even have the text books.

If I had any musical talent, I'd play piano.


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

That's funny, you being a guitar playing dj, wine maker. My husband and I are always dreming up a shop where we sell all the stuff we love to do. There would obviously be all kinds of pastries and coffee, wedding cakes, personal training (haha!), rabbits, pottery, homemade cheese, and fine art. Something tells me, that shop wouldn't ever find it's niche.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Momoreg,

Anything flys in fairfield county.
cc


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## kylew (Aug 14, 2000)

I look at this question from the other side. If I were not a low level executive @Monolithic Monster Corp. I would be a chef or caterer or something that would allow me to indulge my love of all things edible (except hot cereal)


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## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

If were not a cook, I would either be playing in the NHL or I would be in movies.


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## layjo (Oct 12, 1999)

I think I would have liked to be a stand-up comedian or a comediac actor.......but I have trouble making up jokes! I very much enjoy watching comedians do their acts on stage. I also thought that I might want to be the lead vocal in a Mariachi Band. But in the last years of high school I had a great interest in achitecture and machine graphics and design. I know I got some good writing skills(ledgible wise) out of those four years of drafting classes.

[ February 22, 2001: Message edited by: Layjo ]


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I would either be an actor or sailing around the caribbean without a care in the world!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Travel agent doing Food Tours!!!!
Value added products consultant for farmers....that is foodie again.. 
School systems have burned me out I could not go into a large system....still would need to work for myself. 
HMMMMM. may need to come back to this, so glad it's not a necessity to alter my way of making a living.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

If I could be doing anything else I would want to be living in Greece growing olives on my families farm.


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## shimmer (Jan 26, 2001)

Well, I'm on my way to discovering the answer to that very question. If I don't change my direction and become a chef, I will remain in school and become an ethnomusicologist. I'm halfway to getting my MA. If through experience that I start getting tonight I decide being a chef is for me, ethnomusicology is only a thing of the past!!!


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## theloggg (Sep 28, 1999)

Yeah, porn star, sweeeeet.

First I want to make it to Chef, then I'll think about what I would do instead.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

OUCH!


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

I'm not a chef, but the question was directed to foodies, too. If I weren't a foodie, I'd be skinny and be missing out on this wonderful community.


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## palmier (Oct 17, 2000)

OK...The guy from Canada wants to be a hockey player, The guy from Texas wants to sing in a mariachi band, and the guy from L.A. is strung out in front of the 7-eleven
.......hmmmmm,


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

...and you, Palmier?


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

Cape I played in bands and worked with them for many years. I would love to be back in music, but.....CoolJ, I played hockey for many years also and I too dreamed of becoming an NHL player or if not a trainer. However my life dictates that I support my family, but if I had the wherewithall (where's my lottery ticket) I would have no formal job I am interested in almost everything. Just like I was when I was growing up. I would if I could, find whatever I was interested in at that time, take the necessary classes to become proficient, play with it for awhile and move on to the next gig. I'd like to paint like Bob Ross (is that his name) Live on the beach in Maine for awhile, go jam with Eric Clapton. Learn to blow glass and make glass art, take up RC car racing, etc. etc etc.
Will I get lucky or will it all remain a pipe dream. Worst case scenario I have my wife and my incredible son and that is all I would ever really need.


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## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

I'd be a crack head, begging for change in front of 7-11 or a pornstar!!!  


[ February 22, 2001: Message edited by: Chef David Simpson ]


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Chrose I did the glass blowing gig, it's a blast!!! New Orleans has a couple of places that give lessons.


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## palmier (Oct 17, 2000)

I started out going to college to become a disc jockey. I actualy got some air time at the school radio station. I always wanted to be on the radio, however I quickly found it was a one in a million job. I'm afraid that if I had persued that dream, and came up short, I would be in front of the 7-eleven with Chef David Simpson.


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## mofo1 (Oct 15, 2000)

Village Idiot. Key West, Fl


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## layjo (Oct 12, 1999)

Yeah I sound good while singing in the shower; I think my bathroom has good acoustics for my voice......although I wonder if I'm the only one that thinks so!


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## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

Layjo, 
the best acoustics anywhere are in the bathroom, Weird Al Yankovic, recorded his first single in a bathroom while in college, not that this has anything to do with the topic, but I felt like putting it in.


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## david jones (Jan 15, 2000)

As it is, I'm not a chef. If I weren't in the food business, I'd be a lawyer.

One of the good ones, though....

[ February 26, 2001: Message edited by: David Jones ]


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## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

Is there such a thing as a good lawyer??!


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## lorib (Jan 3, 2001)

I like the life long learning suggestion. I guess if money wasn't a problem I'd be a career student and world traveler!


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## cookm (Aug 8, 2000)

Hmmmm...I think I'd either be an artist, like a painter, a drummer, or perhaps a pro cyclist or rower. It'd be fun to do all that and cooking, too! But soon I will be a web designer, who can bring in the food somehow, I hope!!


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## lynne (Oct 6, 2001)

I would travel the world, getting to use all my languages and meet fascinating people; I was very interested in cultural anthropology in college...

For now I'm very happy in the b&B, I meet all kinds of people (who get to travel the world...), I cook a little, I do weddings and get to play a very small part and make other people's important days special. I'm working on adding on the commercial kitchen so I can start the catering side.

I don't think I want to change...


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

This is a neat question. If I wasn't a 'foodie' I'd be a professional chef, because although I really love to cook, in the last two years I have totally fallen 'in love' with cooking. But I think I'm too old to start at the bottom now


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

well, heh, perhaps i could have the first comedic chef's show. But i digress.

Professional rich dude.


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## papa (Oct 5, 2001)

I am not a chef and I can live with that. (It is not always easy!) But not being a Foodie? The idea is terryfying!!!! It is as horrible as the idea that there isn't life after death!

But, if for a moment, I am to close my eyes and think of that terrifying situation, I probably would have been a veterinarian. I have an infinite love for animals!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Nick.shu....there are already comedic tv chefs...
rich dude sounds good , how about rich dudette?


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Vet? Now that's a thought... I am insane about animals. I have two dogs, a cat and a ferret. I once delivered nine puppies, tied and cut the cords after tearing them out of the birth sacks because their mother wanted no part of the process. What's a foodie?


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

cooking and comedy rather than one or the other? rich dudette, shouldnt be a prob (its a little harder on this side of the Pacific
- given AUD $1= USD $0.51).

Being a vet is no good - i only know butchery (take it apart - fine, but i couldnt put it back together to live).

I still think that off the cuff comedy or whatever combined with a real cookery show,,,,,but anyway.


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## cwk (Nov 24, 2000)

I think I'd be a bassist in a jazz band or a 
Railroad Engineer.I played hockey in philly 
when I was a kid (Bernie Perant<sp ) was my hero and I was pretty good but I don't think I could hang too long given my lifestyle.
Bill 
Porn star would not be bad either.

[ March 09, 2001: Message edited by: CWK ]

[ March 09, 2001: Message edited by: CWK ]


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## shimmer (Jan 26, 2001)

Hey, everyone:

I've decided! I AM going to be a chef. I am NOT going to be an ethnomusicologist! 

*sigh* No more sitting around discussing minute details of obscure and outdated theory! 

So, with joy, glee, and backflips, this question doesnt' really apply.

I just had to share, because I just decided yesterday because of the culmination of circumstances and feelings, and that's it. I am going to work for a year and a half at least, and then go to culinary school. 

It's amazing how light one can feel when one has direction!!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Porn Star, cannot be as exciting as a busy Friday night on line. Or as stimulating as cooking on a couple of burners in the woods with just found morels and an adoring audience who thinks you hung the moon.

It's the fast food of Sex...filling, greasy, cheap, fast and many times gross with no one's soul singing praises of Greatness.
No experience just voyeuristic thoughts.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Ahhh,

The world of culinary arts...

I just love it  
cc


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Long live dreams. Without them we would have nothing to live for. Now - What's a foodie? Someone...anyone...


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Woolworth's was wonderful! I still have dreams about the dime stores too, where a kid with a quarter was rich, and you could spend hours trying to decide what to buy from the well stocked bins of junk  We have a store close to us here in Maryland that still has the same junk. The entire store is done up like an old time five and ten. Of course the prices are today.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Shugie,

A foodie is someone who is not in the proffession,but has a deep love and respect for food and wine 
cc


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Thank you. So, I'm not a chef, but I love working with food for the mere artistry of it. I don't eat what I cook, but taste, of course. Does that make me a foodie?


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## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

[ March 10, 2001: Message edited by: Chef David Simpson ]


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## chef david simpson (Sep 25, 2000)

CS, you sound kinda weird, but sexy! This is a good thing in my book.


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## papa (Oct 5, 2001)

A Foodie is someone who is passionate about ... Slow Food, True Food... or just plane Good Food!

I hope this answers the question.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Thank you Papa, I love your answer. I guess maybe I'm not a true foodie since my passion is not in the eating of it but in the creating with it and earning a standing ovation. I really don't know what I am. Maybe just a plain, decent cook. I can live with it


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## papa (Oct 5, 2001)

Dear SHUGIE8645:

I understand how people for whom food preparation is a profession could sometimes forget the meaning of food to the rest of us, the non-professionals.

Plato's philosophical works about Democracy were written around the dinner table. The "Symposium" is a great example of that. This is a book that deals as much with western values about Democracy as personal issues such as homosexuality. In the same book we also get some good descriptions of ancient Greek recipes and plate presentation. Food has been inspiring to many people in so many ways. My best memories from my youth are related to some type of eating event. Easter, Christmas, hunting and fishing expeditions became complete with the preparation of and reached their climax around the TRAPEZI (eating table). Friendships of my youth, either from college or the army, were cemented with good wine ("In Wine Lies The Truth"-ancient Latin proverb) around a great dinner. Betrayals of love in my youth were dealt with around the dinner table in the company of friends who cared enough to listen and be there for me. Personal, political and philosophical opinions and beliefs were formed and strengethened around the dinner table. Even the loss of loved ones who passed away was dealt with around a feast. In my travels, I learned about cultures and their people from eating with them. It is as if food, in its social prespective, opens hearts and minds to new experiences and emotions.

Now you may understand better what being a Foodie really means to me.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Papa...

I wish I could take my thoughts and put pen to paper like you.
When I read things like your comments It helps to strengthen my resolve to do the best that I can. My favorite times are at the table with my family and friends.
cc


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Papa suits you for an AKA....
Passion in my mind wether you cook for a living or not defines foodie. When your heart quickens and you smile looking at the first spring asparagus or morels....Singing in the kitchen because your glad to be there creating....Driving that extra 50 miles to explore a food find....Serving a thoughtful dinner to good friends.....Sharing that incredible matsutake so others can see what the fuss is about....Scouring the stores for your lover's favorite chocolate or armangac...


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Jeni  You just reminded me of my first life long dream...to write like Stephen King. I have been writing since I was about ten. I gave up my dream, just as I was getting published on a regular basis when my husband died. I had to go and and work, so there wasn't a whole lot left of me by the time I got home, between the hard work and the grieving. But in this time I really fell in love with cooking. I could stay in the kitchen 24/7 quite happily. Papa, I loved your post about food. I well understand it, coming from an old world Italian family. I DO have an inner need to feed people  I believe that in my pleasure of doing for others I forgot about enjoying the sensuality of food for myself.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Shroomgirl, you are right again  I am very passionate about creating and feeding. I very much liked your post.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Papa, you write so beautifully.


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## papa (Oct 5, 2001)

Thank you guys.

I just write the way I feel. Straight from the heart.

Thank you once again for your kind words.


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## cwk (Nov 24, 2000)

Papa,
Thanks for the insight that is quickly lost upon a lot of "Pro's".I wish more often I could stop and smell the roses.Honestly I don't remember the last time I sat down with family and shared life.You are a great reminder of things we sometimes seem to lose.
Nice,Bill


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