For many years Chef FERDINAND METZ was the President of the vaunted Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Over my ‘coming up the ladder’ years, I met and worked with many graduates of that school. They uniformly respected him. Some spoke with a mix of awe and some with fear. It was the emotions of young people more than any aspect of the man’s personality I came to know.
We met for the first time when I was invited to come and deliver the commencement speech at the school. Though it was twenty years ago I still vividly recall rolling up in the limousine they had sent to get my wife and I for the occasion. We were far from Miami in terms of weather and the shift I felt with my emotions. The shift of ‘what am I going to say to the students?!? I never went to a culinary school’. But my butterflies vanished in the warm greeting by Chef Metz and the Team. We met again a few times later over the ensuing years.
Yesterday my wife, Janet said, “looks like there’s another package out in the yard”. She went to get it. I thought it was another book I ordered from an online source and opened it. But it was a surprise. The book was the newly penned work of many years and a ton of research written by my long time and widely respected friend. Inside the front cover he wrote a beautiful inscription. Soon I was reading with great gratitude the words you can see in the image below. Before I go let me add that Chef Metz is one of the very few that totally understands the timelessness and nuances I was hoping to evoke when I wrote my original essay, “On Fusion Cooking” and delivered as a speech in Santa Fe in 1992 to an audience of chefs, food journalists and all kinds of people in the business. The Amazon link is here. I urge you to consider getting a copy if you love food, history and the cultural impact he covers here with great integrity and energy. I will be reading it from cover to cover.
Thank You Chef.
