Cooking for Fun and Profit

Last week I was able to get past the gatekeeper at a local, high profile seafood restaurant for an interview. My long standing relationship with a vendor paid off when he gave me a call about an open chef position at the restaurant and agreed to forward my resume to the General Manager. As it turned out I had worked with one of the front of the house managers in a previous life and was taken aback when I called her expressing interest about the vacancy.
'It didn't even occur to me that you might be interested in the job' she exclaimed.
By the time I had gotten to the interview the GM had two glowing references before I had said a word. The interview progressed with a comfort level usually reserved for a long standing friendship rather than a potential employee and suddenly I watched the stars align as he asked me to come back on Friday and cook for the owner.
He confided to me that they had received 551 resumes and I hadn't even seen the posting. He had gone through about 125 before his eyes started to glaze over and he realized that words on a piece of paper do a poor job at representing someone, no matter how well it's written.
I heaved a sigh of relief. His experience showed me, all too clearly, how hard it is out there right now for anyone looking for work by just submitting resumes and going through the usual process, regardless of how diligent they are.
Gotta get past the gatekeeper somehow.
Friday morning I woke up, wrote in my gratitude journal and opened the book I have been reading, 'Change your Thoughts, Change your Life' by Dr Wayne Dyer based upon his interpretation of the Tao - the oldest book of wisdom ever written.
I read Verse Three:

'Putting a value on status
will create contentiousness
If you overvalue possessions
people begin to steal
By not displaying what is desirable, you will
cause the people's hearts to remain undisturbed

The sage governs
by emptying minds and hearts
by weakening ambitions and strengthening bones
Practice not doing....
When action is pure and selfless
everything settles into its own perfect place'

I laughed out loud, got dressed and focused on 'not doing'. When I got into the kitchen I took a deep breath, got centered and imagined 'everything settling into its own perfect place'. In an hour I had knocked out a couple of portions of Shrimp & Grits with a Watercress Salad and Chive Au Buerre, Sauteed Sea Bass with Grilled Asparagus and Garlic Mashed Potato with a Citrus Relish and finished the presentation with Yucca Crusted Grouper with Sweet Potato Hash and a Roasted Corn Sauce and laughed the whole time knowing that no matter how things played out after the tasting - for the moment, everything was perfect and in it's place.
And so was I.