The farm is in an increadibly hot part of B.C. up near Lillooet. There are wild horses, tall grass and bears. Right now Gabriel has walla walla onions, cherries, garlic and baisil. The quality of what he produces is the best I’ve seen. The best tomatoes and peaches I’ve ever had have been from his farm, and I can’t wait to have some this year when they are ready.

The Farm is called Sapo Bravo, I’m not sure what it means and I forgot to ask. He offered us beer, and he said he normally brews his own but he has been busy with his new baby. We had home made goat cheese on crakers and some fresh cut greens. We were close to his farm because we were on a dirt bike camping trip. I don’t dirt bike, I just lay around and read.

I want a dessert made out of these, because they are new to me. I think they are so interesting, because they are wild and beautiful.

I love local organic swiss chard. When it’s fresh it is amazing. We’ve been getting some local organic stuff from an organization called Sole Food located in East Van. Spinach and radishes as well.

I’ve been reading alot about where chefs get their inspiration from. In the last food and wine there was an article about Pierre Gagnaire and his inspirations, which ranged from art to perfume. That must have been in the back of my mind when I spent the day here. Everything looked so good to me, the colors and lines, the wild, earthy shapes and smells. Variety is a very appetizing thing to me, the amazing variety of ground covers that covered the land was somthing I haven’t seen. It made me think of the mixed green salad I’ve had once and never again. Each leaf of the salad was different and crisper and fresher than I’ve ever had but warm from the sun, just picked, never been refrigerated. One was sour like sorrel, one peppery mustard, one sweet baby kale, licoricey, spicy, sweet, topped off with kale flowers. These flavors were only hightened by the addition of some lemon, fine olive oil and sea salt. The colors were dark, purpley green, frilly white, bronze, yellow, violet, baby green. Someday I’m going to have that salad again and the ground cover reminded me of that. In nature there are so many beautuful lines that get me thinking about the lines and thought that go into plating a dish. Arbutus trees seem like exotic birch trees, and birch trees, fir, pine and eucalyptus is what I want. These pictures are for me to draw upon when I need to create dishes down the road and I wanted to share them.

Really satisfying staff meal made by Guillaume. Split pea soup, maple glazed pork belly, and poached free egg. That’s it that’s all.

Kyle and I had 2 days off in a row together so we jumped in the car with no plan and started driving to the island. I packed my new smart girl bag complete with pen holder and not much else and we just drove around, took ferries and listened to music all day. We bought some wine and cheese and we had a picnic. We went to Salt Spring Island and saw the cheese makers there, their farm had cute goats and chickens foraging in the woods for slugs and apparantly they have amazing eggs available but they were sold out when we got there. We went to the good wood fire pizza place in Victoria and the pizza was super good, then we camped for the night.

Haha! I used to repeat this to myself out loud at my station in a creepy, mantra-like tone to make Scott Dicks laugh.

Everyone was really awesome about that bottle rage post. I thought no one saw it because I removed it an hour after posting it, but I got alot of responses. I just felt bad about venting negativity on the internet. It was some PMS and some anger. I just can’t put into words clearly what is so frustrating to me. It isn’t monotonous jobs, because I love those. I just know that most of the really driven cooks that I know were on meats within, at least their first 2 years of cooking. Bryan, Jeremie, Kyle, and Scotty didn’t have to wait like 7 years before they paid enough dues to go on meats. I’m not different than them.

Robbie says standing next to the meat station and watching will only go so far, he says I need to be “fired in dry.” That is how you learn, you do, you get yelled at, you do better.

I’m getting all riled up again. Positivity, intensity, positivity, intensity.

I’m just going to set up my own kitchen and get Kyle and Bryan to teach me, and everyone else can go fuck themselves…positivity, intensity.

I planted some of the little plants I started from seeds on the roof top garden of Two Chefs and a Table in Gastown. Some of the sprouts seem really small for this time of year. I planted kale, some beet and radish seeds, some cherry tomato plants, a melon, and some beans. It is so nice of them to let me have some space up there.