Some days it's hard to find my happy place in the kitchen. I love to cook and bake and usually it's the room here I'm most at home. Because I cook for a living and not just for pleasure, some days it's harder to enjoy the process. Recently we've heard from a lot of people who have cookbooks and almost universally they talked about what a wonderful process it was to create them. I envy that point of view. For me every book I work on is a struggle. You are working with a team of people who have a common goal, a great book, and sometimes very different views of what it takes to get there. It's a process. A good team can create a great book but there has been a measure of blood, sweat and tears that went into each of the three books that I have a hand in. It made them each better in the end but not always fun to work on.
This third book is in the wringer. That's my own private term for the editing process. We are doing the writing and the photography so it's a double dose of constructive criticism and defense. It's going to be a great book, I know this. But sometimes I need to step away from it. Amaya's been asking for a blueberry pie and today I finally made it for her. Because I love her. And because it made me happy to bake something just for the fun of it for a change.
Love what you do, just realize that you may not love it every day.
Years Past
June 19, 2005
