Well to be more accurate, I had a dream last night specifically.

I was a visiting chef in a restaurant. Doing a food stage, (a food stage – is an unpaid internship, an aspiring chef will take to try out at a restaurant) at an upscale restaurant to see if I wanted to work there.

In the dream, the restaurant was bright, clean, well-stocked and beautiful. The people were passionate about what they were doing and working because they wanted to be there. I was visiting and trying to get a job, so I was showing off my skills in the kitchen. There was this one lower-level cook who was a foreigner too. They were making either a soup or a sauce with red bell peppers. A play on a traditional dish from her home country, possibly something her grandmother used to make, but it wasn’t turning out way that she wanted it. She needed help to fix it.

I tasted the dish and instinctively knew, it just wasn’t done yet. It needed more time to cook. That’s all. The bell peppers just needed more time in the oven to transform into delicious, soft pieces that really popped, and well maybe a splash of lemon juice too. I helped her figure that out, not by telling her what to do, but asking her questions so she could figure it out, then confirming the right course of action and helping her execute.

After helping her out, I knew that was where I needed to be. In the dream after that, I decided I am going to work there. I was going to move, because apparently the restaurant was overseas and I was going leave everything behind and continue working there, because I knew instinctively, that is exactly where I needed to be.

The thing is, I don’t think the dream was telling me that I needed to find a job in a restaurant overseas that I really want to work at (maybe Craft by Tom Colicchio) and move there immediately. Although, that would be nice for a new adventure. I think the dream was telling me that was the person I want to be. I am instinctual, but that is a skill that needs to be honed. I want to be someone with enough skill and experience that I can teach. However, like the dish we were making, I still need time. Additionally, the dream reminded me of the joy of being the type of person who is able to take risks. Taking risks is not easy for someone settled and doing well. It is hard to have a good thing and change it all because of the slight chance things may be better. In that dream I was ready to make a massive gamble because I had a sense that kitchen was where I was supposed to be, that it would help me not only become the chef I wanted to be, but the person I wanted to be.

It is just a dream, but I know it is totally achievable. I know next to Doctor Martin Luther King Jr’s dream it is a really small one, but it is important to me. I am that person, maybe just the small stages but it felt so right. Take all the circumstances away and I know that person, it just felt right. I am listening to a biography of Walt Disney, and he was such a cool figure. He may have been the youngest person in the room, but he was someone they all listened to because he had the experience and was respectable, well he was also the boss, but baby steps. I didn’t realise the risks and struggles he took in his early years. I actually doubt he stopped taking risks, I guess I will find out. I want to be like that though. A big swinger. Walt was an inspiration. I’m going to be a culinary dream.