There is moments in time when all your immediate worldly experiences float away and you see yourself, life and everything around you with a form of clarity that unfortunately is all too few and far between.
Is it our internal monologue and the inner narrative voice that begins when we form memories for the first time that makes our path and lives so hard to detach from? I mean of course our own personal experiences and the way we interact and react to them is what makes us the individuals we are. But what I am trying to express is the ability to detach and just enjoy the ride for a while is something which for me inspires, educates and allows me to take pleasure in all the random occurrences of life and where every moment has taken me.
One such example that will form the main body of this post is the way in which every outward action, in this case being that of a concerted effort by an individual that completely changed the direction of my life.
I remember it was nearly three years ago now when I was surrounded by six or seven close friends here in Falls Creek, Australia. I realised there and then the one individual event in my life that had led me and all my friends around me to be there together in that point in time.
In my previous post introducing myself and my experience as a chef I briefly mentioned that I had lived in Spain during my second gap year at the age of nineteen. I’ll leave all the certain descriptive details about my time in Andalucía, Spain for another post. However what I will say is I was lucky enough to begin working for a Michelin trained chef in a top end restaurant & hotel.
Danny’s immense individual talent and style was something which I still have not had the pleasure to be around again. His command of every individual flavour, texture and technique enabled him to create dishes so pleasurable to the palate, all that ate his food were, well impressed to say the least!
My previous pub/ gastro experience as a chef meant that this level of food was something completely new and different to me and in many ways I felt out of my depth. However Danny and his Sous chef Craig had taken me on because they saw something in me. Possibly my natural talent or just the simple fact that my general positive attitude for learning meant that I was blessed to be taught for several weeks by these two extremely talented chefs.
It had been three weeks into my time there and myself and Danny were doing an evening service for our first time together.
Classic kitchen scenario here!
Ten booked, call off the dish washers and kitchen hands. Service starts and we receive twenty walk-ins. Before we knew it we were inundated with orders and what started as a controlled, relaxed Monday night service morphed into mayhem. I, of course had been shown all the entrees and desserts that I was expected to do that evening but together with my inexperience and the current stressful situation that was unfolding I forgot everything!
We quite literally, were in the shit! This of course was not the first, and certainly won’t be the last time I will be in the ‘shit’ during my career but this particular night was to change the course of my life to where I find myself today. As we walked out of the restaurant, into the warm summers night and along this Spanish villages streets Danny spoke to me. “Kyle, promise me one thing. When you go back home, make sure you work somewhere good.” These words stayed with me. Danny knew me well, he cared for me and he cared enough to direct me in my future.
So this was it.
This small minor occurrence, one person’s outward expression for the betterment for another person changed my life. From Spain I travelled back to the UK, moved to Tunbridge Wells, Kent and begun working in the Rosette awarded Hotel Du Vin. Here I met Max my closest friend to this day and from here I gained the invaluable experience that took me onto Chelsea, London to work in a top end restaurant. What has happened to me during all those years to lead me to believe that London and the UK was not for me is for another time. But what I will explain is that I found myself in Falls Creek all those years later surrounded by friends I had met through my choices based around hospitality and, most importantly by the option of Falls Creek by my friend Max.
There we have it.
I suppose you can explain these occurrences and happenings in one’s life down to mere chance and not see anything special in it. I don’t. I see this as fate and I believe that everything happens for a reason. This is the way I maintain faith in life and through this mentality I guide myself in further future choices. We are all different, but this is what guides me and keeps me strong.