Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef
Written and Narrated By: Aarón Sánchez
Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
M’ favorite “Chopped” judge!!!
Here’s where I fess up to something only alluded to whenst asking for Round 2’s Tell Me What’s Next voting: Yesss, there was indeed ONE offering that we here at Audiobook Accomplice have a kinda sorta personal tie to. ZARELA!!! Famed chef and TV personality Aarón Sánchez’s mom is Zarela, a chef extraordinaire who went to my own Mom’s school in El Paso, TX. This I did not know. Yeh yeh yeh, Maman speaks often and lovingly of the school she went to and the young women there, but Zarela was a different year, and well, sometimes I’m only listening for tales of Mom’s culinary fiascos, and not for others at the school who may’ve rocked. So there’s that, you see: I was pulling for Where I Come From to win it all.
-But- there’s also the fact that when I saw this go on sale, I shouted: AARÓN!!! Because there were a few years there I watched TV during my overnight shift, and man! do I dearly love a good cooking show, or what? “Chopped” always had me at the edge of my seat as contestants, harried and rushing, seemed to aaaalways cut off fingertips right when they really haven’t the time to. Needless to say, these poor victims of poor time management and abysmal Under-Pressure-Knife-Skills, usually turned in dishes to the judges that were sorely lacking in, well creativity was there, but ya add latex from finger sleeves to a dish, and you’re not going to do so well at the Judges’ Table. Sánchez was always so very kind, even if he was indeed grimacing the whole time. Urbanity and Kindness are two things you don’t find together too often, but he managed it all: So very knowledgeable and smooth, yet with a bit of an edge. AWEsome!
What I liked most of Where I Come From is that he narrates this himself, so we’re given a true and heartfelt journey of a kid from a border town who lost his dad far too soon and who struggled to find his way out of Young Tomfoolery. He gets into a LOT of trouble what with aimlessness and a mom who was, well he doesn’t say it, but she was emotionally distant and worked LOADS to take care of him and his brother, and to introduce Mexican cuisine to New York City. That said, she tried danged near everything from therapy to Survival Camps to get young Aarón back onto the straight and narrow, but it wasn’t until she chucked him to Chef Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans to get a crash course into the rigors of restaurant life that he discovers: It takes discipline; it takes haaaard work.
There is an interesting foray into Food Network history as Sánchez was instrumental as one of the network’s first personalities featured. He describes how Back In The Day, things were sooo different, with the chef having to do all the prep work, manage time without prompting (Until, that is, the introduction of the dratted “earpiece”), and this was in the days before a recipe was started and then a finished recipe was waiting to come out of the oven for TV audience approval and edification. There are some hilarious bits of things NOT going well, cabbies tipped extra well cuz there’s gonna be an ineradicable odor of Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey wafting from the upholstery for a reeeeally long time after sloshing his way through NYC to get to the studio.
Okay, now this is where I posit that Food Network is absolutely instrumental in breaking up chef relationships. Sánchez kinda dances around it, but he still comes off as egregiously clueless as Cat Cora in Cooking As Fast As I Can: Ya wanna be a superstar for Food Network? Ya danged well better not cry: Whazza? My wife and kid(s) would like to see me SOMEtime as I jet set around the globe for m’ own show, created around my unique ethnic cuisine and heritage?! Whyyyy is my relationship now ending in divorce? Because, you see, Sánchez meets the love of his life, they get together, she has the kid, and then she sits around while her own dreams are dashed against the rocks. By this point, after a few forays into Food Network stars’ bio/memoirs? Can we all agree that THAT is no way to work a marriage? Chefs can cook up many things, but a stable relationship is NOT one of them.
This was a really fun Listen that, at just a touch over 9-hours, doesn’t feel too long as it’s tightly-written, tautly-paced, a Kid Going Nowhere Meets His Destiny tale. Yeh Yeh Yeh, if you get offended by the F-word, like, you’re completely sensitive as heck to it? You might wanna stay away from this, tho’ I should tell you that it’s in no way gratuitous, but does pepper some of his commentary. I mean, cooking ain’t for wimps (Not that you’re a wimp if you choose not to drop the F-bomb!), the Industry ain’t for wimps, broken relationships ain’t for wimps, and life as a scalawag who loses a dad young ain’t for wimps either.
Oh, and don’t expect recipes either. You looking for that recipe for the Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey? Nope, nothing but the stench of sloshed drippings on the backseat of a cab included here.
But DO expect some magNIFicent descriptions of grand foods, from his mom, Zarela, from his own kitchen as well.
Gosh, I do so love Chef stuff! Nah, nuking a spaghetti dinner and chucking crumbled feta on top of it is as chef-ish as I get nowadays, but? Ahhhhh, even I have memories of m’ early marriage years where there was nothing I loved so much as a good set of knives and the perfect reduction!
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