Life outside the kitchen...

[Teri Everitt]

Well, first off I think a lot of chefs and cooks will fire back the answer SLEEP!

but, what do you do on your down time?

I take a printmaking class, hang out at art galleries and rock shows when time permits (helps that I'm a pc who doesn't work nights). A couple of my fellow chefs at work teach hobby classes, and one guy plays bass in a band (a pretty good one) as well as teaching a children's cooking class and regularly haunting shows in Ottawa and Montreal. Another fellow pastry chef's hobby is training for and running in marathons (better her than me!)

So how do you spend your day off?

[Joisey]

Hide from my kids. Get my mental mise en place ready for going back. Hopefully it's summertime and I can fire up the grill and do some beer research.

[Reefpimp]

Sometimes woodworking; sometimes I'll wander over to my sister's house and ask her hubby if I can use his forge and anvil (it's really theraputic to whale away on hot steel, plus old chainsaw blades make cool Damascus billets.) Scouring antique stores for antique tools in good condition. Spent my days off a few summers ago dismantling an old barn and documenting how it all went together and putting the beams in a 40' CONEX. Lost a bunch of weight and now I have the timbers for a house.

Fishing and hunting, in season. Pheasant stock doesn't spring fully reduced from the forehead of Escoffier. Venison tenderloin doesn't wander into the freezer all on its own.

Sometimes I'll just twist up a fun-log and pile up on the couch with the dog and watch cartoons.

[piperdown]

Get all the crap done, that I can't do while working. So I run some errands, take the dog for a long walk, perhaps catch up on the back log of Tivo'ed TV shows. If I'm lucky, spend some quality time with my girlfriend.

I also try to take some time and reflect on the week in the kitchen. I especially did this if I had a bad week. Just go over what went wrong and how I can fix it.

[chromedome]

Well, yeah, sleep.

And to relax after a hard week of cooking and baking at work, I like to, uh...cook and bake. Pathetic, isn't it? There's also a lot to be done around the house at any given time, since my ex has been laid up with a broken leg and my kids are always off doing something or other.

My major recreation away from work is reading: I average something like a book a day year in and year out, though since my last promotion that's declined to maybe three hundred a year or so. Of those about 60% will be related to food and cooking, as will about 40% of my online time. As for the rest, well, my curiosity ranges pretty widely. I might be reading anything from a biography to a sociology textbook to the latest Terry Pratchett novel.

Right now I'm into the last nine weeks (OMG!!) of planning and preparation to open my own restaurant. This entails learning the regulatory environment of another province (I'm living in Alberta, but moving to New Brunswick) as well as finishing my cashflow projections, finalizing the financing, planning the initial menu, contacting suppliers, establishing some food costs...y'know. Stuff.

Then, utterly exhausted, I get to open the doors and deal with tourist season.

[TJHarris]

Day Off? What the hell is that?

[paul o' vendange]

Sleep. Nurse the pain in my joints. Then try to pretend I'm still an athletic young buck for my little boy, who needs dad to play "pirate swordfight."

[NutMeg]

Today I had the most productive day off EVER. I went for a massage at 9 (gotta take care of the muscles - or at least the fat cells surrounding the muscles....), then I went shopping - got some new spring clothes, a book, a chocolate bar...then ate lunch outside in the park (in CHICAGO, in FEBRUARY! It was so nice!!) Then went to the Art Institute for a few hours (since it was free today) - wandered around downtown a little more, just to remember what the outside world looks like....came home, greeted the hubby, and am now getting ready for dinner with friends. YAY.

But most days off, I sit on the couch and try to dream up new desserts.....then spend valuable time just relaxing with the hubby.

Meg

[Basildog]

Play with the kids.Sometimes i play with the wife

[Cookwithlove]

Chefs' job are both physically and mentally(senior chefs) demanding. All the joint-part are stiff, doing some light stretching and yoga really help. To de-stress I play the chinese flute known as the Dizi and meditation. You really re-charged what I experienced.

my 2 cents

Have a stress-free day Chefs!

[devinf]

sleep.drink.sleep.laundry.smoke.sleep.drink.sleep

Somewhere in there I do a bit of gardening and tinkering in the kitchen while nursing the Netflix addiction.

[Timh]

I have my two little girls, for the one day I don't work, and I usually go by the restaurant to place orders or something. I would like to get back into my yoga practice, have a date, go out to eat, even just sit on my ass, drink lots of beer, and do nothing, but its not an option for me.

[coastie]

fish and forage . I live in a really pristine forest and in season I can pick morels and porcini to drop names lol. I like to go outside. Even in the winter and there is a lot of that in Alaska. Fun to forage - cook - and eat. Fish eaten on a river bank rarely ever tastes sweeter

[Michaeltheonion]

Days off for me are a blurry thing. See im a student, journalist, entremetier and a anarchist community kitchen chef. so for me a day off is when I have a block of 6 hours off. Or if I only work 7 hours in th emorning shift and get off at 3 then thats my day off. than I normally put on one of my other hats, But my favourite thing to do is play some chess with friends, have a dinner party with some good wine and watch a movie, in that order.

[Richard Wolf]

Today is my day off!!!

So I guess I sit in front of my computer, work on menus, Check out the Chef Blogs and oh ya. I went in to the restaurant for a few moments today to check on the buffet set up and last nights reciepts... Ended up being there for two hours.

And when that is all done I am going to test out a new recipe on some friends for dinner at home.

[Teri Everitt]

Right now I'm into the last nine weeks (OMG!!) of planning and preparation to open my own restaurant.  This entails learning the regulatory environment of another province (I'm living in Alberta, but moving to New Brunswick) as well as finishing my cashflow projections, finalizing the financing, planning the initial menu, contacting suppliers, establishing some food costs...y'know.  Stuff.

Then, utterly exhausted, I get to open the doors and deal with tourist season. 

←

Wow! Sounds exciting but exhausting. What kind of food are you thinking of doing? Hope everything goes smoothly.

[Teri Everitt]

It's interesting reading the replies to this topic. My youngest child has a disability, and since childcare is fairly impossible to get for him, I made the decision a long time ago to fit my work around my life, not the other way around....but I know from working in the industry for 19 years that for most people working in kitchens life outside the kitchen can be practically non existant.

I have a pretty sweet job, Monday to Fridays, almost complete control over my own schedule and I only ever work nights or weekends voluntarily, my boss has never asked me to do it. My ex and I are fairly co-operative at dividing up school holidays so that neither of us takes too hard a hit in the paycheck. I really can't complain. Downside is that I don't make a lot of money, but I don't need to make a lot of money.....I only need to make enough money.

Edited February 26, 2007 by Teri Everitt (log)

[Jenifer]

I'm a culinary management trainee for a large hotel. I'm about half way through my program. Which means I pretty much do everything that everyone else doesn't want to do. I've been filling for all the sous chef's while they take vacation.

What do I do on my days off? Usually, cook a homemade meal for myself, yes I cook:) Do laundry, sleep, sometimes work on projects for work. Nothing too exciting. Occasionaly all us trainees go out for dinner, show, or some event in the city.

[andrewB]

i'm 3 months INTO having opened a restaurant plus having 3 others which need to be maintained. i don't remember what a day off is!!!

[cdabney]

I white water kayak. Nothing gets your mind off work better then hitting some rapids.

[Mr. Delicious]

On my day off, I usually grab some friends and beer and head to the Missouri River and relax or go canoeing. I just did a 20 mile stretch of the Little Missouri through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, nothing in that park could make me think of a cheesecake, it was quite calming. I also think about how I should have ran erands or started my mounds of laundry, but I need to relax. Also trying to learn to forage for morels.

[Oyster Guy]

I am truly blessed to be living and working in the beautiful Coastal Mountain Range of British Columbia.

On my days off, I like to hike the surrounding mountains and get away from the maddening crowds. In the winter, it's with snowshoes but what the hell.

A wineskin full of good red wine or a flask of good brandy makes for a great day.

On times when it is unseasonable out (torrential downpours) a nice roaring fire, a home cooked meal, DVD's, computer games while I am doing the housework and/or laundry.

Or on a nice summer day, I wander to the clothing optional dock on the lake a 15 minute walk from my front door and enjoy the sunshine not to mention the view.

Keep on shucking

Oyster Guy

[chromedome]

Right now I'm into the last nine weeks (OMG!!) of planning and preparation to open my own restaurant.  This entails learning the regulatory environment of another province (I'm living in Alberta, but moving to New Brunswick) as well as finishing my cashflow projections, finalizing the financing, planning the initial menu, contacting suppliers, establishing some food costs...y'know.  Stuff.

Then, utterly exhausted, I get to open the doors and deal with tourist season.  

←

Wow! Sounds exciting but exhausting. What kind of food are you thinking of doing? Hope everything goes smoothly.

←

Evenings will be aimed at the casual end of the fine-dining spectrum. I have fresh fish coming from the waters outside my dining room window (one fishing wharf about 2km down the road, another about 8km); local producers for duck & foie gras/boar/organic beef/organic pork/heirloom veggies/sturgeon & caviar, etc etc. As I build momentum and get established, my plan is to feature a higher percentage of local product; for now the cool stuff gets to be the focus of the plate while I keep my costs in line with staples from Sysco and their ilk. Gotta make a buck or I don't get to keep doing it, right?

Sunday brunches will be "nice," but not as upscale. Quiches, omelets made to order, that sort of thing. I'm going to do an Eggs Benny variation with duck prosciutto and Maltaise sauce, maybe another with house-made gravlax and some of the local caviar. Intended to be accessible to the blue-collar crowd as well as my target evening market...a way to get people in the door without the same $ commitment.

During tourist season I'll also be doing cheap lunch (soup, salad, sandwich) for drive-up business as well as packed picnic lunches for the Inn's guests.

[Bicycle Lee]

I work on my motorcycle, in my garden...always clean house, do laundry. Go out to eat. Haha

Today I got to drive out into the desert and shoot my gun. Nice release.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

When not at the restaurant, I pick up additional catering gigs to supplement my vast riches, hehehe.

And when I have a Real Day Off, I cook for my friends! What's wrong with me!!!

Pat