Isaac Fitzgerald - Knives & ink: chefs and the stories behind their tattoos

BY THE SAME AUTHORS

Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them

Bloomsbury USA

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This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published 2016

Isaac Fitzgerald & Wendy MacNaughton, 2016

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ISBN: 978-1-63286-121-4 (HB)

ISBN: 978-1-63286-122-1 (eBook)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Fitzgerald, Isaac, editor. | MacNaughton, Wendy, illustrator.

Title: Knives & ink : chefs and the stories behind their tattoos / [edited by] Isaac Fitzgerald and Wendy MacNaughton.

Other titles: Knives and ink

Description: New York : Bloomsbury, USA, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, [2016] Identifiers: LCCN 2016002299| ISBN 978-1-63286-121-4 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-63286-122-1 (ePub) Subjects: LCSH : CooksUnited StatesAnecdotes. | Tattooed peopleUnited StatesAnecdotes. Classification: LCC T X649.AI K575 2016 | DDC 641.5092/2dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002299

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FOR
ALICE SOLA KIM
AND
CAROLINE PAUL

PREFACE

My mother can't cook. She showed her love in many ways, but food was not one of them. This made for a childhood of pasta and Chef Boyardee and vegetables straight from the can. By the time I was out of the house, the only trick I had learned in the kitchen was how to pour milk on cereal and, if I really wanted to go all out, mix peanut butter with vanilla ice cream.

I worked in numerous restaurants as a teenager and in my twenties. Sometimes as a dishwasher, usually as a waiter, but never as a cook. The kitchen was an explosive place, filled with heat and noise and chefs who were happy to do shots after work but on the job only wanted you to get your orders right, pick up your food fast, and get the hell out of their way.

Only once did I ever dabble in the culinary arts. For a short period when I was twenty-five, I was the worlds worst sushi chef. Every morning, Id rise early with the sun and ride my old, rusted Huffy through the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco until I got to the prep kitchen in the back of a large warehouse. My boss was a skilled chef with over a decade of training in the art of sushi, and he was starting his own catering company. We would roll maki, cut sashimi, build nigiri, and place it all carefully into plastic boxes for the Palo Alto tech kids. It was incredible how patient my boss was with me, waiting calmly as my clumsy, unskilled hands formed the sushi rolls in slow motion. I always finished last, lucky not to have cut myself with the sharp Japanese knife hed lent me.

So, to put it bluntly, cooking is not a skill I ever acquired. Thanks to my old bosss training I could probably make a shiro maguro roll if you gave me an hour but in my kitchen, its still mostly cereal and peanut butter mixed with vanilla ice cream. Which is why the world of food fascinates me. The ability to make an exquisite dish out of dead animal flesh or plants grown in the dirtwhether its a comforting, familiar reenactment of a favorite culinary memory, or full of strange and wonderful tastes that youre experiencing for the first time in your lifeis nothing short of a miracle. It is an alchemy that I will never grasp.

Not only are chefs total badasses, they also look like total badassesalmost every chef I ever worked with was covered in tattoos. What is it about chefs and tattoos? Whether youre looking in a backwoods diner or a Michelin-starred eatery, its hard to find a cook who doesnt sport some ink. A lot of chefs get a tattoo because they see it as a commitment to the craft. A neck tattoo or a hand tattooor maybe even a tattoo atop your headis a way of ensuring that youll never work a desk job again. Others get tattoos for the reasons so many of us get them, to remember a moment, or a person, to carry something with us for the rest of our lives. Still others get them for possibly the best reason of all: just for kicks. Wendy MacNaughton and I have attempted to portray these tattoos, some food-related and some not, as the beautiful works of art they are, and to share the fascinating personal stories behind them.

The tattoo stories in this book come from chefs from all across the country. Some went to culinary school, others apprenticed, and still others were self-taught. Whether their stories are about cooking or their personal lives, all of the tellers are straight-up magicians who have mastered the art of making food. In addition to stories, some of the chefs have shared favorite recipes for you to try your hand atfrom the complex, like Brown-Butter Sage Salmon with Gemelli Pasta, to the more simple to prepare (I myself plan on starting with the oatmeal). These recipes complement their stories, adding another dimension to a portrait of a chef.

Another skill I never mastered was drawing. Wendy MacNaughtons gorgeous illustrations perfectly capture the beauty, power, and pure radness of these chefs tattoos. In her line work, you can perceive a devotion to art that mirrors the chefs devotion to food and that celebrates the original tattoo artists work. By presenting the tattoo as a drawing instead of a photograph, were hoping youll slow down a little bit and pay closer attention to images and details we might not normally look as closely at, or even see at all.

Drawing, cooking, telling stories, tattooing and being tattooedthere are so many different ways to express oneself creatively in this world. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the ways these chefs do exactly that.

ISAAC FITZGERALD
NEW YORK