the diminuative chef at a prominent berlin restaurant belonging to an even more prominent yet socially inept restauranteur... (a coke-head with an affected attitude including a sort of twitch (curable in africa i am sure!)...) attempted to stage a traincrash... involving me... a false accusation... (booze.... theft... whatever it takes to get fired!) i was frontshop... and a sort of armanish (wishful thinking!) reception girl... you know, almost like a maître d'... but probably not connected to the redlite district enough to qualify... a poor attempt, anyway... the cook had a german name... Detlef? or something...but apparently an italian surname... not Batelli!? i suppose i would have believed him if he hadn't repeated his italianess on a daily basis... or if he had been bigger than me!? he was afraid of the stairwell down to the mosaic tiled toilets... especially after the 'accident'... a drugdealer had slipped and almost broke his neck in my immediate company... yes those stairs were slippery...and Detlef knew it! how i love the decadence of the gastronomy!
anyway... his cooking was ok... he got the job cause the kitchen was so small, actually unbelievable that something like 6 or 8 juvenile delinquents fitted physically into that narrow, wet, hot hole... oh i forgot to mention the 2 giant and obviously... black dishwashers... male! not to mention the inflated egos...
but what i actually wanted to say... was...? my grandmother said... if you forget what you wanted to say... you're actually about to lie!?
ossobuco... wasn't excatly Detlef's signature dish... but he, like most choleric cooks...did not take critisism very well... but hey... a big fat paycheck for a while is a comfort for a while... oder?
how to make a great ossobuco!?
one thing i can tell you... the controlling department budget...didn't excactly allow for quality purchases... and no cook alive, with good intentions... or ambition... can cook with shit quality... and no cook with respect for his products and guests would stay in an establishment thta did not promote natural quality produce... preferably organic, and from the area... and in season...
the shorter the way from garden to the table... the better... it's a golden rule.. to some... even to some with a fast-food background! (like moi!)
a great ossobuco takes time.
and if you don't have time, don't even start cooking!
i've seen a few kitchens from here to berlin... to cape town... to jerusalem... and back... must add that i have also spent time in the army... in other words... but some of the conditions made me want to call the health department... on the spot... but instead, i walked.
time, time, time... not the recipe... the ingredients yes... love and time...
and by the way, time is a luxury... and most cooks don't have luxury... do they!?
that's why mamma's cooking is still best... isn't it?
cheers from the deep forest... close to the black forest... in the palitinate forest... and bon appetit!
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