My obsession has quickly become my passion.

I’ve been working in Digital Marketing and Web Development for over 15 years now and I have literally written code with my eyes closed. Yes, everyday creates a new change and everyday some new technique or skill comes out to try. But it is just that, something that I’ve been doing for 15 years now. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do and I am very fortunate to have worked my way up in this industry and to have gotten to grow my career and implement a lot of changes for the organizations that I have been a part of. But, when watching Chef, this clip hit me hard:

When my mother in law died, I had two choices, learn how to cook or starve and that wasn’t really an option so I started asking questions of my mom and then I remembered my days in Texas and how much I loved grilling and smoking food. And I started off small and I talked with my Mom about her spaghetti recipe and I made that and realized that my mom was not the right person to ask for cooking advice. I started making the spaghetti recipe once a week and then I perfected it to a point, that I could make spaghetti almost the same each time and not look at the recipe. And while I was starting at the basics of spaghetti, I remembered how much I loved to be outside and grill. In church one Sunday, my wife’s grandmother asked if I wanted her Weber Grill, which might lead to one of the most honest responses in the United Methodist Church, which was a simple AMEN!

So, fast forward a few years and my obsession of cooking has become my passion.  My days of traveling to and from work now are often spent talking cooking and food with friends and giving them suggestions or ideas for recipes. I am often asked now to smoke or grill food for co-workers and when they want me to try new recipes. I am talking with chefs on a more regular basis to gain ideas, learn new techniques, pick their brains on pairings of beers and foods, seasoning of food and things of that nature.  And the importance of the clip above, is showing how excited he was and how he was expressing his creativity, something that I can relate, because when I cook, I get to use my creativity side. In my job, I am the least creative person that I know.

What I have found, is that as I learn more, my obsession continues to increase. My obsession for cooking has become a creative passion that I have never experienced before.  And not only has this obsession taking a life of its own, it has created an opportunity to show and teach my sons. Not only am I teaching them about cooking and exposing them to differently flavors and types and styles of foods, I’m bonding with them and spending time with them. So my obsession is just as much about spending time with them as anything. The boys know that on Sunday, we goto church, get coffee and donuts and the come home and spend the day at either the grill or the smoker.

While I am teaching the boys how to cook, I get to laugh and joke around with them. Teach them about the importance of food safety, but also the time that we are spending together and doing something that we love. Growing up, I didn’t have this type of relationship with my father, we do now, but not then. I didn’t spend a lot of time with him and know that every Sunday or Saturday or both days, that we would be outside cooking. I didn’t have him teaching me about things that he was passionate about. And my hope, is that as this obsession, not only mine, but the obsession that my sons are having with learning more about cooking grows, that they will share these same things with their children when they have them.