Opening Comments

So this is my blog,
welcome!
As the title suggests, I was once a chef. I spent 10+ long years toiling in commercial kitchens all up and down the east coast of Australia, as well as a short stint in la concina of a Spanish mountain cantina. I fell into the trade more by accident than design, although I'd always had an interest in food, stemming from a parental interest ahead of its time in exotic ingredients, as well as an innate propensity for gluttony. My intension was always to become a journalist or some other form of professional writer, but this was not to be...
Having enrolled in the University of Queensland's journalism school, I needed a job to pay for the roof over my head and an increasing dependence on beer. So I answered a job ad for a kitchenhand position in the appallingly named Fasta Pasta franchise opening up the street and was soon up to my elbows in fresh spaghetti and pre-cooked pizza bases, rising from dish-pig to second chef in just under two years. The uni degree only lasted three more semesters, but it wasn't until 12 years later that I managed to fool someone into giving me a job that didnt involve the back-breaking labour, stupid hours and stress-induced substance abuse integral to the cooking game.
But despite all this, I've somehow managed to develop and hone a profound interest in the production, preparation and consumption of food. It's a diverse and fascinating realm of the senses, which not only provides us with basic sustenance and fuel for a day's work, but forms the very basis of cultures and evokes the highest passions; the best and worse in people.
So read on, I hope that I can somehow communicate my love of food in all its facets, but also my belief in the need for people to recognise and adopt a heightened level of integrity to their patterns of consumption. By supporting local industries, encouraging sustainable farming practices and ecologically-sound production methods, people can change the world for the better. All it takes is for people to think about the food they're eating and what happened to it before it appeared on the supermarket shelf in front of them.