You see it on Top Chef all the time. The hobbled, baby wildebeest limping around the kitchen. A chef barely hanging on in the competition. Scared and bleeding. On their last legs. With a few hyena snapping at their ankles. A lions pride, calmly in the brush, watching.Figuratively, Robin is that wildebeest.Literally, though, she’s a true survivor.Eli’s unfortunate comments cast judgment on Robin’s inspiration and victory this week. It was the type of comment that probably had more than one person, including myself, saying “Oh no, he didn’t”.
He did.I can’t defend his choice of words. Even though I can vouch for his character (he happens to be an extremely loyal and family-focused person).But I can help you imagine his mindset.When you’re a young chef, overly ambitious and obsessed with your craft, cancer doesn’t mean much. When you work in a great restaurant and push hard every day, nothing else means as much. A tight brunoise or turned vegetable are all that matters. Life is barely a blip on the radar.
It reminds me of this quote from White Heat by Marco Pierre White.“When boys don’t last the pace that makes me feel good because I can and I will”. – chef de partie at Harvey’s.
That is a ruthless yet accurate comment.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.