Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers )

Hey, did you hear? FOTD Mel (Spatula in the Wilderness) is hangin up his blogational ‘whites’¹.  (Damn!)

In any event, Friend of the Doctrine, mentor, ‘first-blogwriter-I-know-personally-to-get-material-banned-from-facebook’, former hospital chef, Mel announced in a Post at the Spatula that he is hangin up the Ladle-of-Literature, you know, the Colander of Characters, the Flour Sifter of Florid Prose, the…. ( …stop, not another keystroke…stop! ) .

In any event, Mel has experienced that ultimate nightmare of anyone who acquires an new interest, a hobby, an avocation. How many of us have come upon a talent, a gift within ourselves and realised, perhaps late in life, how much pleasure we create for ourselves and those around us? We experience trepidation as we find a joy in the hard work of learning and practicing new skills, the better to express our new talent. The world changes, our lives expand, we become more, not better and not worse, not even different. We become more of what we are as people.  Be it music or art or even writing a blog, we laugh when people ask, ‘how can you spend so much time: practicing scales/ writing and re-writing those Posts/ drawing and sketching, so few people ever hear/read/ see them’.
We laugh because they are right and we laugh because we remember a time when these same efforts, these same exercises, the same frustrations that are a part of our new interest ( music or art or writing a blog) were work, to be dreaded, not looked forward to after a long day at the money-paying job.
How many of us sat through grade school music class, high school composition class, college art appreciation class and couldn’t wait until it was over? Funny about how work can turn into (a) pleasure of the most sublime nature. And this ‘ultimate nightmare’ of those of us who discover a talent, an avocation? While this nightmare is there for all of us, it is perhaps only the clarks among us who can actually see the nightmare, aka Changing Life Priorities. This nightmare is not an evil thing, it is not even a bad thing, but to the child (or the clark in us) it is the most awful of the nightmare that we  encounter in life. We call it a nightmare because it represents the fact of life that things change…
How innocuous a pair of words…how totally harmless, …things change… As a junior high school student my parents got me a piano teacher because I had an interest in music and as a clark, I applied all of my energy to lessons because that would make everyone be proud of me. I had some talent, not a lot but some so there was early progress in my learning to play and because I was a clark, I asked the question of myself, ” I really like this, what happens if I lose interest in playing piano?”  …things change… who among us has not heard those two words come from a person who was part of the framework of a life,  ‘(I’m sorry but)…things change.”

But that is what makes a clark a clark…the capacity to see the nightmares that will consume all of us at one point or another in life, whether we are aware of it or not, whether it affects our lives in ways that we can feel (or not). scotts? they pretty much feel the advancing storm and dig a burrow and wait it out, never wasting a moment to consider the rightness or wrongness of the thing. rogers? they can hear it coming down the walkway at night, but they will close their eyes and tell themselves tales of old when things were simpler and when they open their eyes, things are changed to the way they have always been.

So, go read the Spatula while it is still up and write something to Mel.

1)  The traditional chef’s uniform (or chef’s whites) includes a toque (traditional hat), white double-breasted jacket, and checked pants. It is a common uniform in the Western world. The double breasted jacket can be reversed to hide stains. Its thick cotton cloth protects from the heat of stove and oven and protects from splattering of boiling liquids. Traditionally knotted cloth buttons were used because they could stand up to the frequent washing and survive contact with hot items without melting. Typically, men button to the right while women button to the left. The black and white checked pattern frequent on trousers serves to camouflage minor stains. The white color of other clothing articles is intended to signify cleanliness and are often worn by highly visible head chefs. Aprons are used to shield the rest of the wearer’s garments from food splatters and stains. The toque is a chef’s hat that dates back to the 16th century when hats were common in many trades. Different heights of hats sometimes indicate rank within a kitchen. The 100 folds of the toque are said to represent the many different ways a chef knows to cook an egg. Some modern chefs have put their own distinct spin on the traditional uniform utilizing colors, patterns and design changes. Chefs may express their personal style by wearing a decorated chef’s coat, some of which have food inspired prints. In more traditional restaurants, however, especially traditional French restaurants, the white chef’s coat is standard and considered part of a traditional uniform and as a practical chef’s garment.

History

Chefs clothing remains a standard in the food industry. The tradition dates back to the mid-19th century. Marie-Antoine Careme, a popular French chef, is credited with developing the current chef’s uniform. The tall hats had already been introduced, but Careme wanted to create a specific uniform to honor the chef. White was chosen for the chef’s coat to signify cleanliness. Later, the French Master Chef Georges Auguste Escoffier encouraged his kitchen staff to wear suits outside of work to signify professionalism of chefs. Escoffier brought the traditional chef’s coat to London, managing the restaurants at the Savoy Hotel and then at the Carlton Hotel  (courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef’s_uniform)