t’s

my favourite T.

I really love vintage clothing shops.  The variety of people browsing and working there seem to   juxtapose our search for authentic originality vs. our mass media conformity.  I found this T in one of those shops,  I think it cost a dollar.

This was my first real food related shirt, circa early nineties this company went out of business before cooking became socially acceptable and “in”.  Influenced by some early iron chef japan ish theme, maybe this was the T that Joe Langhan saw while creating the food network in america in the early – mid  nineties…  If only they could have stayed afloat long enough to ride the food craze media wave.

The only reason I don’t wear this shirt is because it almost perished in a drunken candle accident that left me with some nice burns on my chest.  I’ll touch more on that in another post, i promise.

I’ll find a way to wear this part of a shirt again to glorify its vintage status, but if i can’t I think I might just frame it and use it in a fire safety seminar.

out for now,

j.

only you can prevent under seasoning

Backsplash

About 8 months ago, I was getting asked about my collection of bandannas, how many, (19) where i got them (amry surplus, vintage, dollar store…) and why I kept changing them.  This drew from my holistic ritual of soaking the bandanna everyday in ice water,  and as the first chits began printing marking the beginning of service, i would tie it on and let the water drip down my face.  It must have looked strange, but i always thought of it as cooling, and kick starting the sweat I would start pouring by around 8pm in XVIII kitchen.

So I decided to do a little research into what I could find in clothing that was at least mildly restaurant relavent.

I found lots of t`s with food items on them ; chillies, knives, veggies, cows, pigs, talking fruit…

Some quoted t`s from TV and celebrities refrencing;  top chef, kitchen nightmares, julia childs, thomas keller, mario batali, iron chef, jamie oliver…

Clothing made for weekend BBQers, mild hobbyists and bored homemakers.

I was angry that I couldn`t find anything that I felt represented restaurantculture. Living in the world that is the resto business is like living in a different dimension.  The morning walk to work, 10,12,14,16 hours later leaving the restaurant usually to get a few (or alot) of cheap drinks at the local industry bar. The misfits, dimwits, outcasts, old tops, rookies, owners, chefs, managers, noobs, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, pastry chefs, bakers, and everything in between is what makes working in the biz so daily facinating.

So why not do it myself, easy enough i thought.  I researched, bought and built all my own silkcreening equipment, through bartering and soliciting free and cheap gear i set it up for around $200.  That $200 was the best investment in teaching myself that I`m a terrible silkcreener. Just awful.  In the future I`d like to get back to it but defeated, i let the dream go.

my first silkscreen t ... ug...

Revitalized that i was coming to the end of my stint as a sous chef of a very large and expensive restaurant I began photographing and editing some of my favorite symbols in the kitchen.  The cleaver, the Garland burner grate, the whisk, the offest spatula, the mini cast iron pan, the german steal carving fork, raised chinese cutting boards, pulltap corkscrew, and my fav : sh*tty plastic tongs.

With those I`ve put together a few designs, just enough to keep me charged and inspired to keep going.

out for now,

j.

it tastes good to me