tuna casserole:
an anthropological journal of culinary melodrama
by Bobby Dodd
Have you ever been fondled in a walk-in refrigerator while trying to collect enough “mis en place” to feed 200 people?
I have.
It’s not as romantic as it sounds.
I’ve recently completed my first manuscript, titled “tuna casserole: an anthropological journal of culinary melodrama”
This collection of personal essays chronicles my journey from suppressed corporate executive to financially challenged culinary student to financially challenged cook, resenting customers and co-workers, alike.
But I can’t blame the industry, entirely. My relationship with food, made me a horrible person long ago. Weaved throughout, are stories from my childhood that prove that I was destined to become the person that I am today.
and that person, could use more therapy.
Free food, foul language, casual sex, hangovers, and knives are just another day at the job…
A little about me?
Are people still saying “hot mess”?
I’m sort of rocking a wannabe Karen Walker a la “Will & Grace”/ Wilhelmina Slater via “Ugly Betty” meets Lena Dunham meets Blanche Devereaux-thing, right now. A personality of this volume, level of self-absorption and femininity, reflect two things. 1. I’m a disaster with good taste, who feels entitled to the finer things, by any means necessary and 2.) My father really should have thrown the football around with me instead of ignoring me while I opted to play Dynasty in our above-ground pool. I was Amanda (she was British) and occasionally persuaded my brother to be Sammy Jo, because it involved “fighting” in the pool.
I’m a full time cook, recluse (when time allows…) and cry-baby, who will complain to anyone willing to listen.
Unlike the movies, I’m coming to realize that following your dreams involves being tired and underpaid. I’ll bet that Nicole Kidman didn’t have to put up with this crap…
I have a degree from a “Southern Ivy League” university that is currently of no use…other than to occasionally remind servers, line cooks, and dish washers, that I’m “better” than they are.
Despite being emotionally and physically exhausted, jaded and filled with self doubt, I’m obsessed with cooking and eating… and do them both very well, even if they occasionally clash with the classical philosophies of my training. There are nights that I would step on a Coq Au Vin to get to a double cheeseburger.
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