Another Season has come and gone, and there was a week on food that I missed in its entirety. Michael Ruhlman kicked of the foodie week lectures. I’m currently reading his book “The Making of a Chef” and regularly check his blog.
We usually go for a long weekend in the summer, as my father and actually the entire family used to work there. But illness has taken its toll and no-one made it there this year.
As Jim and I and our dinner guests watch the most incredible land-based fireworks in the country, I think back to sitting along the shores of Lake Chautauqua, by the bell tower, watching the Mayville Fire Department’s version of fireworks.
It’s the thought that counts. Sitting on the grass by the lake with a hundred people watching a small town strut its stuff. That’s what life is made of.
Yes, I have wonderful memories of the big stuff, but lighting luminaria at night all around the 21-mile lake, sailing the ill-fated 17 ft. day-sailer which should have been named the Davy Jones (all while we sat on the crystal clear lake with no wind while Dad said “we’re gonna go like he** any minute”), that’s what it’s all about. The Chautauqua Belle and Frank’s sister playing the organ in the bell tower. Playing basketball at the High School club. Learning golf with pro Stan Marshaus. Resurfacing the eight clay tennis courts….
Working at the program office, cleaning 52 of Ben Vereen’s suits in Jamestown, ordering roses for the opera divas, being asked to buy drugs by artists, or convert a check made out to an agent to cash for the artist at 11:00 p.m. in the middle of no-where (no way, no how, easy excuse for both). Before ATM’s or computers or cell phones. I wrote guest passes by hand. Once on the pass, once in a ledger I gave to Accounting every week. When the SPEBSQSA came, last week of every season I had to write 150 just for them! That’s the Society for the Preservation … of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, hello Scotty from Buffalo!
So when Chef Ruhlman confirmed his artists lodging and meals I really missed the fact I couldn’t get there this summer, especially for food week. As for now, favorite artists I’ve seen and met: Tony Bennett; Carlos Montoya; Henry Mancini (he hung out with me in our kitchen to take a break from the reception). There are more but it’ll be another post.
Favorite caterers: Aunt Lorna and Joan C., mentors along with Mom who set up these donor receptions nearly every evening. Memories.
