Spirit Food

    I recently returned from my trip to the Inyo and White Mountain ranges of Southern California and they were a site to behold. The area is still widely populated by Paiute and Shoshone native tribal members and the spirit of ceremony and reverence is strong.  For the past twenty years I have been traveling to these mountains to participate in a variety of indigenous rites of passage ceremonies, including the vision quest. We all have our paths in life and for me the most powerful way to connect, has been to sit alone in these desert mountains, usually in a state of fasting without food and shelter, in the hopes for guidance and direction.
    These things have come, sometimes not in the form I might have expected, but the prayers have always been answered. What I have learned most from these journeys is how connect with the the land itself. For me there has been nothing more grounding than time spent in the wilderness and it is a major reason why I am such a proponent of sustainable and slow food practices. I believe ceremony and tradition to be very important, regardless of race, creed or religion. Without these connections we are lost.
    My friends Dr. Scott Eberle (who founded the Marin Hopice Center) and Meredith Little, who along with her late husband Steven Foster founded The School of Lost Borders in Big Pine California, are among the many people in this country who have dedicated their lives to the service of others. In our frequent discussions during the past few weeks the subject came up about how stressful everyday life in our culture can be. We came to the conclusion that maybe mankind has not evolved enough genetically to handle the ever increasing pace of life as it is today. With technology exploding at a pace so rapidly that it's almost impossible to track and the financial pressures of a weakening economy and low pay structure beginning to weigh heavy on our lives how are we supposed to function under the stress.
    Of course it's easy to sit on a pristine mountain top and ponder these concepts, but sooner or later, it's back to the grind. Because I have four children, a mortgage and a drawer full of bills like everyone else, I suppose there are many parts of my life I have no major control over. Like every one of us I have buckle down on a daily basis and trust that things will work out as long as I keep striving to make it happen. On the other hand I have to feed my spirit and fortunately I live in an area where this is possible to achieve.
    I feed my spirit with the beauty of nature around me. I feed my spirit with the pleasures of great food prepared and or grown with love and respect and I feed my spirit with the sharing of community. We cannot walk alone in this world and this is a lesson I have had to learn first hand. We all have troubles, some of them grave, but the only way to thrive in a society as fractured an unsupportive as ours, is too find your tribe whoever that may be and stick to them like clue. Then when you find your people, find your passion and move towards it, regardless of how long that might take.  Many of us are stuck in the ruts of our daily lives, while our hopes and dreams get pushed farther and farther down stream, until the current literally carries them away forever and a part of us dies.
    Regardless of how hard it may seem to me on any given day, I refuse to let that happen and I hope the same is true for those of you out there, who honor me deeply by reading these columns of mine. Although my words are simple, my dream has always been to write and it has been a true gift to be allowed to do so. 
    As a chef, my dream revolves around having both the freedom and the ability to work with the foods, and clients who appreciate the art of our craft. Chefs work harder than most people I have ever known, often in brutal conditions. There has to be a reward for this kind of dedication and strength other than a pay check. So if you're in one of those sell your soul kind of jobs, that I know all to well.
    Get the hell out of there and trust that you will find the place you belong. A kitchen where you can cook the way you love. Do it with the knowledge that if you feed your own spirit, then and only then will you be able to feed the spirits of others. Believe it or not, that is what being a chef is about in the first place.