Chef Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia: Louisville, Ky

It’s hard for me to go through life without giving some credit to the assholes that helped mold me into the hardworking individual that I am today. No, I’m not talking about that father-like figure who apparently adopted me at birth and instead of treating me like the ugly goblin that I am by tickling my sense with a lollypop… Instead, I was given a good ol ripe beating from a leather belt for every mistake that I made. Never being taught the idea of what a mistake is and/or how to avoid them beforehand. Never explained. The belt had all the answers.. do not question! Though at my age now, I see that my childhood disciples were best at preparing me for the Idiocracy future and “what’s to come as consequences”.

Almost felt like A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash, but I’m going to give some praise to Dressed as Goblin performed by Nekrogoblikon!

Today this post gives my appreciation to one and only

Chef Edward Lee.

~Sorry for stealing your fish spatula chef… It was a long working day of being half-assed awake and I made only one honest mistake that week. Back-pocket the spatula. I remember how you freaked the fuck out for about five days about how dirty low down cunt it had to be for stealing your favorite fish spatula. There was only like five full-time crew who just stared at each other in silence. Probably why I never returned it. The show you gave was epic! Acadamy winner!~

Today I’m talking about the ones who could earn the name as the “Chef- Whisper“. Not about one who can manipulate the food on a plate so damn good that it appears he is merely whispering to it… NO! I’m speaking about that back of the house talk, that shit that normally gets blasted at volume eleven. I’m speaking of the ones who would stand so damn close to the ear so that no one else in the teeny tiny kitchen can hear. Spue sweet degrading shit that made one want to throw everything in the trash and walk out the back door like a sad hurt liberal with middle fingers high in the air. I’m speaking of whispers that after finishing up a night viewing their kitchen running like a smoothed oiled machine handing out some thirty-seven perfect badass plates to RSVP only guest without mistakes, still found the time to whisper words of constructive criticize to the likes of…

” What is with you. That shit on the plates tonight, that piece of fucking shit, that. that… That shit represents me out there! blah, blah, blah”.

Hell’s Kitchen ain’t got shit on those days of 610 transition. Probably given that I was a semi-paid intern, all based on the mood of the moment in the emotional mind of New Yorker Edward Lee. I can see where he is coming from when he is putting his reputation and partial money on the line for Gluttony. Food means something in America. So, I believe I got the whisper every night no matter who made the mistake in the kitchen.

610 was introduced to me by the chef who’s lonely soul decide to lead the mandatory Sullivan University internship program at… some restaurant downtown Louisville, KY opera house. I thought I was some hot shit at the time. I performed my duties without question. I prep, swept, and creme brulee without an issue or half-ass manner. I am most thankful to that woman you sold me up the river to a position in the kitchen at one 610 Magnolia. That elusive high-end restaurant located in a simple renovated home in the alley in the middle of the not so favored downtown area for some 25 years under the hands of one Ed Garber.

It seems that I was just so lucky to be there at the time of handover transition between two great culinary gods and thanks to my childhood disciple for I never threw anything into the trash and gave in when under pressure. I stood my ground and became a better person emotional as well as a chef by performance and creativity.

~ ~ Just a few menu items that I had my hand in. I say my short-lived time at 610 was around 2005-2006 give or take a few months.~
~Edward would constantly remind me that I miss some very important dates and photo ops due to my trips into Mexico. At least a was able to save an article from that time.~~ Almost every time I’m driving through Lousiville, Ky, I find myself taking the time to enjoy a former establishment that I hold true to the real-life learning. Hands-on training that one needs to get educated, get ahead in life. I give credit to the fierce attitudes, the stiff personality, the asshole “no jokes allowed” that makes perfection. Mistakes are learned, and during my time at 610, I learned how to make less. It’s nice to have an opportunity in life to be around these people, to learn, practice and grow ideas and skills. To see and feel what skilled perfection is like. To be able to master and engage the learned idea throughout the duration of life on repeat “is” life.