Marisol Murano - Batter Will Fly: 21 Life-Flipping Lessons from a Seasoned Chef

Batter Will Fly

21 Life-Flipping Lessons From A Seasoned Chef

MARISOL MURANO

Copyright 2017 by Marisol Murano

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Publishers Note: While this is a work of non-fiction, some names, characters, places, and incidents have been changed by the author out of respect for privacy.

Batter Will Fly / Marisol Murano 1st ed.

eBook / ISBN-10: 0988739496 ISBN-13: 978-0-9887394-9-9

Paperback / ISBN-10: 0998751006 ISBN-13: 978-0-9987510-0-9

Self-Help / Motivational & Inspirational

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Travel / Essays & Travelogues

Cooking / Essays & Narrative

If I could hold a dream and make it true, I would offer it to the woman who set my sails in motion and who is the opposite of waves, except in depth and strength. Id be lost without you, mam.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The story goes that the slang phrase shit happens was first slurred by a drunken soldier who was pining over his impending divorce at a bar in Europe. The phrase was then appropriated by the soldiers friend, who had no trouble making it his personal catchphrase. From then on, the expression spread and took a life of its own. Now the phrase is spoken all over the world, often as an existential observation that life is full of unpredictable events.

In Spanish we say, As es la vida. The French prefer, Cest la vie.

Batter Will Fly means essentially the same thing: unpleasant things are unavoidable and happen to all of us. After working in hot kitchens in six continents I can vouch for this: there isnt a way to set up a life, a situation, or a job that contains no challenges. Whether stuck in French Guiana due to a delayed rocket launch, being surrounded by hungry whales, or derailed by volcanic eruptions in Iceland, I have met my share of obstacles on my way to the kitchen.

The best way to deal with this inevitability is to learn to take charge of the quality of your own personal experience. The quality of your life experience is up to you. Thats the central message of this book.

Whats Inside?

This isnt a recipe book, but rather a travelogue for people hungry for meaning and willing to give something different a try. During our brief time together Im going to show you new places and invite you to meet people youve never met before. Im going to take you to remote islands, to ancient ruins, and to the top of spewing volcanoes. Throughout this journey, your journey, I encourage you to keep your eyes open and to notice. Notice possibilities. Notice opportunities. Acknowledge lost feelings.

This book and the life-flipping lessons in it are meant to help you get out of your rut, whatever that may be. Think of this as a private tour of the life Ive lived, with me as your personal guide, pointing out the lessons Ive learned and the healthy tips Ive picked up along the way. As we go around the world, Im going to introduce you to people like Adi, who worked at the top of a volcano in Indonesia before coming to work for me as a sous chef. Before working with me, Adi had a job I never knew existed. When you meet people doing work that is very different from your own, it gives you a new perspective on just how many different career paths are out there. That realization alone has the power to ignite your life. Exploring new opportunities can give you the momentum you need to set on a new course.

As you come on this journey, I invite you to ask yourself: What do I want? And what am I willing to give up to get it? Were going to vastly distant places, from the top of Mount Ijen, in Indonesia, to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Youre going to watch the sun rise over Anjuna Beach, and moon shimmer above Venice. All told, Im taking you to twenty-three destinations without charging a dime for airfare. And once youre done sightseeing, youll have twenty-three life lessons as souvenirs.

Many of the issues youre dealing with as you begin this book will still exist after you close it. But hopefully at the end of our journey youll have a better idea of how to tackle those problems. Maybe youll even experience the sticky stuff that comes your way a little differently. You will begin to differentiate between whats truly critical and when to say, batter will fly; and you will use the life-flips in this book to respond accordingly. Ultimately, the key to success, happiness, and personal effectiveness is to let go of what you cant control so that you can shift your energy and focus on what you can influence.

Now that I have three passports, I can say without reservations that the best plans are easily blown away and that life remains a challenge no matter where you are. But the truest wisdom I have gained along the way is that the difference between the impossible and what is possible lies in a persons belief that she can.

One of the reasons I wrote down these stories is because they helped me believe that I could do it. It wasnt just to prove that I could write themthough there was that fear, toobut that my life could take a different turn, that I was not just a standing stone at Stonehenge. My hope is that the stories in this book will set you on a different course. I hope the more dangerous ones offer guidance about what not to do in certain situations. More than anything, I hope they help you reset your intention, clarify your thoughts, and support you in creating a narrative of your own; a story free of fear, free of doubt, and free of the suspicion that you may be spending your time on this planet in a way you never intended.

As the author of your own life, I encourage you to connect with your sense of curiosity and embrace your fears so that you can run toward the best version of yourself. Come along with heart and intention.

Imagine what you can accomplish with your life once you make peace with the notion that batter will fly no matter what, and that the faster you learn to blast past events beyond your control the happier you will be.

Chapter 1

Cheese Pull: Secrets of A Food Stylist

Why is food styling important to a chef at sea? It has to do with expectations. Having seen the picture of the perfect scallop on a website, alongside the words luxury dining and photos of finely dressed diners and luxurious table settings, people who pay luxury dollar to go on vacation expect to see nothing less than the same perfection on their plates.

Manipulating food so that it looks almost better than it tastes is the job of the food stylist.

Styling food is incredibly difficult to do well. To turn a run-of-the-bush bunch of cherries into a two-dimensional image so luscious that you want to rip off the page and pop the cherries into your mouth is hard work. Nothing is what it seems, including perfection. Thats because in real life, just the way your pores open like craters when you stay too long under the sun, strawberries weep and milk sours.

Here are some tricks used by food stylists to tempt you into wanting the inedible. In revealing some of these secrets, I hope to tempt you to ditch perfection as one of the main ingredients in your life. Setting impossible expectations of yourself can damage your self worth.