I’ve got a Secret . . .

December 27, 2010 at 3:43 am John Davis Leave a comment

I’m fessin’ up:  I never learned how to cook.

Surprised?  Most people are, since I’ve owned a restaurant– Chicago’s Geja’s Café, the fondue place–for over 45 years.

For most of those 45 years I was single and ate at friends’ restaurants. Besides, what was I going to learn in a fondue kitchen?  How to chop vegetables and arrange food platters?

About 30 years ago I set out to prepare my 1^st home-cooked meal and invited a date over.  I broiled some spicy lamb chops, sautéed asparagus, boiled potatoes and lit the candles. Tasty stuff!  I was impressed but apparently not my date, who informed me that she would take a cab home.  This was not encouraging, so it was back to restaurants.

When I ultimately got married, my wife was in law school and didn’t have the time to  cook, nor the inclination.  More restaurants, except for the occasional pasta/salad dinner at home.

Several years ago we moved to Park City, Utah, with our teenage son.  Park City is a mountain town with 3 major ski resorts and a population of some 8,000 friendly folks who don’t honk in traffic and rarely go out to restaurants.

Upon settling into our new home my wife informed me that she and our kid were going skiing and that I was now the designated cook.  Since I didn’t ski, this arrangement seemed like a fair division of labor.  Besides, I was ready to reinvent myself and set off to become Park City’s Julia Child, whose advice I intended to follow:  Be unafraid to fail and if you do, go out to dinner.

Stay tuned and I’ll take you through my culinary journey.

Kind regards,

John Davis, Founder, Wine Insiders

 

 

 

Entry filed under: Geja's Cafe, Opinion, Wine Insiders. Tags: .