Cooking with E!

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."

-Fernand Point

Who am I?

 As a young boy, I spent much time in my parents kitchen. You might be surprised, but I was NOT cooking. I was dedicating my time to organize the tuberware cabinets! Countless hours of my time were spent trying to get the most space out of our cramped cabinets and drawers! Both my parents cooked, not "professionally."  They were both more than capable of doing it for a living, but they loved it too much. We hosted parties and created these elaborate buffets of east meets west cuisine. Serving German potato salad (that my Korean mother learned from my Dad's french mother) next to Grilled Korean marinated chicken wings. Many of our past guests can testify that my parents cooking is hands down some of the best they've ever had, in or restaurant or not. These natural abilities given to my by God is why I've taken the path that I have. I was inspired for years to harvest the skills my parents have and go to culinary school. 

So I did. Immediately graduating highschool I attended culinary school at Joliet Junior College.

While attending school I was putting in 40+hour work weeks at a near by country club. Boy this did build some character! As industry people know, working countless hours a week is part of the job description. I embraced this and loved the challenge! Soon enough I have worked my way up and became the Chef's "go to"  man! Even though I had recently graduated culinary school I felt that it was too early in my career to be this confident. I knew there was too much more to learn to be in this position. So I moved to Florida!

That's right, I lived in Lake Wales, FL. Home of Florida's Natural! This was one heck of a learning experience. After traveling through the snow after the Christmas snow storm of 2008 I finally arrived in Lake Wales. Here I worked at another country club. For the first time I worked in a broken kitchen. I use broken kitchen in the same sense I say broken family. There was one burnt out chef and a whole bunch of lost cooks, including myself!!! Needless to say I learned a whole lot about myself, and about whole fish!! 

So I finally moved home and returned, temporarily, to the country club I was at before. They welcomed be back with open arms but I was not satisfied. I need more, needed, wanted, to be pushed. Off to Chicago!

 I landed a job at acclaimed restaurant BOKA! What a blessing in disguise. I came here to find out that I had no idea how to cook! After a year of fearing for my job, trying to learn and soak up as much as possible, I finally felt like I understood the food at BOKA. Finally I settled in. VICTORY! But as always, time to move on because I can't sit still for too long!! haha!!

After a year and half at BOKA I accepted a job (effective mid nov 2010) at a new country club with a chef I worked with at a previous job in the suburbs closer to my family, and my home. 

After all the time I spent at BOKA doing refined food, in a very structured sense, I realized that its great. Its not for me though. Since I learned SO much from the great people there I can deny the necessity of working somewhere like that! But its time to get back to my roots. Great food, for Great people, done simply. 

That is exactly who I am. I like to do Great things, for Great people, done simply. Hopefully this Blog can showcase my food in this light. 

Why do I blog?

I'm starting this blog to share my food, my career with people. The plan is to keep this focused on doing great food at home. As many home cooks know, some foods can be very scary to execute at home! And for some, all food is this way. I hope this can be a tool to ease those fears, to teach, encourage and inspire others to step outside the box and try new things at home to share with loved ones. 

How do I contact E?

If at any time you have questions, comments, recommendations about anything from food, a career in culinary arts, a party you might be hosting, a recipe, your family, anything you can feel more than welcome to email me at ericwiemeyer@gmail.com. Please put "ecooks" in the subject line. I'm open to do my best to answer all questions or guide you to the answer!!    

For my first post. I think I covered the basics.

E