By Vicente Soria
It was a dull humid summer evening with nothing to do, and time for bed was ticking. With my phone on its last few drops of battery, I entered the inevitable loop that YouTube creates when watching videos. I went from watching Markiplier to Gordon Ramsay's iconic show Hell's Kitchen. I instantly fell in love with the show and how incredible it is, not to mention how passionate Gordon Ramsay was.
The following evening, I rushed to the kitchen to see what my mother planned for dinner. She asked “qué quieren de comer?” My two sisters and I agreed on breaded chicken with braised carrots. It was the first time I decided to help and examine how my mother cooked this incredible dish I had seen the previous night, as I had developed an interest in cooking. She placed flour, breadcrumbs, and scrambled eggs in separate bowls. She then butterflied the chicken breast and seasoned the chicken and the breadcrumbs.
What I experienced next completely changed my brain. I started by coating the chicken with flour and transitioned with my other hand into the scrambled eggs, then finished it by coating it with breadcrumbs. Getting my hands in the kitchen for the first time utterly threw away any doubt of being a chef. We decided to make chicken parmesan as we had leftover marinara sauce. We placed the chicken into the scorching hot oven while we made the braised carrots. When it was time, nervousness flowed throughout my veins as I took the chicken out of the oven. I grabbed the knife and passed it between the chicken. … The glistening, juicy, and crispy cut of chicken suddenly registered in my observant eyes as thrill traveled up my spine into my brain. I was overwhelmed with joy as I finalized my first dish. It resonated with me as if I had a personal connection with it. This rustic dish originating from Italian immigrants in the northeast of the United States completely changed my thought process and the path in which I was headed.
My love for cooking sprouted from watching endless videos of Gordon Ramsay and cooking with my mother, but it truly came from seeing my grandmother's cooking, which to this day spreads joy to everyone around the table. Her heartwarming caldo, moist tamales, unmatched guisado de res, and other cultural dishes put smiles on everyone’s face, even her grumpiest son. Inspired by her, I pride myself on my passion for cooking and the ability to spread joy with food. I want cooking to be an enormous part of their lives and touch their heart just like it did to me.
Cooking is a big part of my life and who I am. It is a space to express myself and release my emotions without repercussion; instead, they appear in what I create. When I feel saddened and discouraged, I keep it simple and uplift my mood with plain but powerful flavors. It is also a stress reliever and a way to forget about everything going on around me, allowing me to calm myself down. The smell of the ingredients unlocks memories about the times I visited my grandmother, which helps me calm down and I feel like I’m with her at that moment. Most importantly, cooking reminds me of my ultimate goal: the goal of helping my mother retire and giving her the life she deserves. Another dream I have is to pay tribute to my grandmother with a restaurant that showcases her recipes which have spread joy for decades. Her lesson about continuing with life despite the obstacles has allowed me to persist. This persistence allows me to take risks and challenge myself by not only taking rigorous classes but also by putting myself out there and meeting new people.
My inspiration for this memoir was my thoughts on how cooking with my family has restructured my future. When writing this memoir, I tried to remember the key parts that made an impact on my eventual passion for cooking, while also remembering what cooking has done for me and the goals that it has created. I used a lot of imagery, as I wanted to highlight the significance of these moments by deeply describing them and the impact it had. I structured my memoir by first describing the moment that truly changed the course of my future, then explaining the definite impact that cooking has had in my life and future. In my memoir I explored the theme of family bonding, in this case cooking, and how it has impacted my life. Cooking has revolutionized my way of thinking and approaching things, and I one day hope to open my own restaurant.