Alan's In The Kitchen!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll recall in the first post I stressed that a fulfilling life in retirement requires lots of different activities that stimulate you. It can’t be any one thing, or it’s a job, and then that’s no longer retirement. And you’ll know from these pages that cooking and learning about food is one of the most exciting and challenging activities for me. I love to cook, to try new things, to host dinner parties. It’s one of the few bottomless subjects I know that provide true gratification.

And you know I’ve been to cooking school in Tuscany, and in Mexico at San Miguel de Allende . . . . and in April of 2020, I’ll be going to Bordeaux.

So last summer, when I was sitting inside reading, I got a call from Tracy Teichman, the Vice President of Development for the Auguste Escoffier International School of the Culinary Arts. She told me she saw me giving a speech, one of several that are posted on the internet. She told me that it led her to wonder if I could be helpful in spreading the word about Escoffier in the culinary part of the hotel/Hospitality industry.

To be perfectly blunt, I thought if I could be helpful I might get a free course out of it . . . . always an appealing prospect for, as I like to say, “an old age pensioner living on a fixed income.”

So the conversation went on at some length, and was furthered when I received a call from the President of Escoffier, Tracy Lorenz. At the end of the call, I was asked to join the Board of Advisers of Escoffier. I waited about a nanosecond and said yes.

For anyone new to this, Auguste Escoffier was the Frenchman who was “the king of chefs and the chef of kings.” He is acclaimed as the one who modernized the art of cooking in the latter part of the 19th century. He invented the menu . . . . before Escoffier you entered a restaurant and you were offered what the chef was cooking for that day. He invented the five modern sauces: béchamel, hollandaise, velouté, tomato, and espagnole. As the partner of Martin Ritz, the two invented the first modern Hotel, the Savoy in London. 

Last fall I went to my first Board meeting and was delighted to meet the other Advisers, who are a team of All Stars in the Culinary world. His grandson Michel Escoffier, who runs the Escoffier Museum in France, was present. The special bonus of the event was the attendance by all of us at the Banquet and Induction ceremony to the California Culinary Hall of Fame.  A number of the Board were already honorees. And it is  needless to say that the food was beyond doubt better than any banquet I’ve ever attended. . . . just take a look:

I was delighted to be included in the days of meetings, and to learn about how the Board of Advisers  lends their wisdom to advance the programs of Escoffier, on the campuses in Austin, Texas and Boulder, Colorado, and their newest and most innovative program, an online certificate of particular value to those in today’s modern workforce who can’t take a leave of absence to achieve a respected credential in culinary arts. 

I take great pleasure in joining the Board, and I am eager to contribute all I can while learning more and more about the fascinating world of cuisine.