This picture was taken on my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Family and friends flew from around the world to celebrate and this table was twice as big to fit us all on. If I can remember rightly the food was impeccable and we were in a gorgeous French restaurant enjoying the fine local produce. This is by far the biggest celebratory meal I can recall and it was lovely to catch up with distant family that unfortunately we don't always get time to see.
Little did I know that a couple of years down the line my grandmother would be fighting for her life and I would be attending my great aunts funeral. This was and still is a difficult time for family. When I found out about my grandmother I lost sense of being and only God will know how my Grandad stayed so strong. There was a lot of unknown ground to cross and many nights I tried to figure out what I could do to help.
There was only one thing I could give and that was my skill, Food. I would cook with my granddad and we experimented with have a dozen recipes over a few beers. Then of course there was my Nans famous gingerbread biscuits which had to be mastered (they had to be perfect Grandad said for people who visited my nan in hospital) not to dark and not to light he'd say.
Cooking has not just been my profession it's helped me help loved ones when I cant even help. It was almost like a silent way to say I'm here. The impact this had when my nan came home was that you couldn't actually get my granddad out the kitchen, something I guess my nan loved some days and wasn't fond of on others. Nevertheless when you give the reward is greater and in turn helps you.
when the family went to say goodbye to my great aunt at a beautiful chapel in Buxton I followed the hearse with all the traffic making way I could only try to hold the tears back. At this point my nan had recovered and my granddad was back to his fighting form. My granddad supported his brother before and after the funeral. There was nothing I could do to help the situation but I could give and give is what I did.
Whilst preparing food for the wake, it wasn't work, it wasn't a job, it was my emotion in savoury and pastry. The emotional connection whilst preparing food to be transported made what I was giving extremely sentimental. It took me hours to prepare the simplest things as I knew where they where going, who was going to be mourning and who they were in memory of. when I delivered the food my granddads brother was extremely grateful. It was an extra stress that they didn't want to think about and I don't blame them in the slightest. To me it was the only thing I could give.
So if your reading this It may be difficult to see where I'm going and why have I shared this. Well its very simple, if you have a skill give it when it matters not just when it pays. From my experience I've learnt that you are not only helping your family and friends, your helping yourself.
The Secret Chef
Ashlee
Little did I know that a couple of years down the line my grandmother would be fighting for her life and I would be attending my great aunts funeral. This was and still is a difficult time for family. When I found out about my grandmother I lost sense of being and only God will know how my Grandad stayed so strong. There was a lot of unknown ground to cross and many nights I tried to figure out what I could do to help.
There was only one thing I could give and that was my skill, Food. I would cook with my granddad and we experimented with have a dozen recipes over a few beers. Then of course there was my Nans famous gingerbread biscuits which had to be mastered (they had to be perfect Grandad said for people who visited my nan in hospital) not to dark and not to light he'd say.
Cooking has not just been my profession it's helped me help loved ones when I cant even help. It was almost like a silent way to say I'm here. The impact this had when my nan came home was that you couldn't actually get my granddad out the kitchen, something I guess my nan loved some days and wasn't fond of on others. Nevertheless when you give the reward is greater and in turn helps you.
when the family went to say goodbye to my great aunt at a beautiful chapel in Buxton I followed the hearse with all the traffic making way I could only try to hold the tears back. At this point my nan had recovered and my granddad was back to his fighting form. My granddad supported his brother before and after the funeral. There was nothing I could do to help the situation but I could give and give is what I did.
Whilst preparing food for the wake, it wasn't work, it wasn't a job, it was my emotion in savoury and pastry. The emotional connection whilst preparing food to be transported made what I was giving extremely sentimental. It took me hours to prepare the simplest things as I knew where they where going, who was going to be mourning and who they were in memory of. when I delivered the food my granddads brother was extremely grateful. It was an extra stress that they didn't want to think about and I don't blame them in the slightest. To me it was the only thing I could give.
So if your reading this It may be difficult to see where I'm going and why have I shared this. Well its very simple, if you have a skill give it when it matters not just when it pays. From my experience I've learnt that you are not only helping your family and friends, your helping yourself.
The Secret Chef
Ashlee
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