My Stint as an Actual Cook - Pt 7, The End (Patreon)

It is a quiet, chilly, early fall morning as I post this. Looking out from my second-floor office window, across the yellow and purple Giverny of treetops soon to be bare twigs, and having just been through the camera roll of my time working at the grocery store, the moment feels draped in a forlorn gauze. Five years have passed since I learned to mince garlic in a food processor that could turn barbecue tongs into tinsel; it has been five years since I felt the food serviceperson's resting grudge stain the envelope of my perception.

I still use my Husker Deux meat thermometer almost daily, and I still stand by my commitment not to eat any of the nasty food I used to cook there. Mostly I'm sad for how much time has passed from my allotment, but I also recognize that it's dispiriting to have worked so hard at something that evaporated the moment the burners were off, every veteran of the team scattering to the winds without a connection to one another.

I've long moved on, and so have most of them — let's take a closer look in this final installment.