Anyway, after all the talk about Mr. Cizma messaging me I freaked out to my roommates. I mean, come on! I was stoked, right? Turns out that one of them knows him, and just happened to mention the whole thing while at work. He (Mr. Cizma) gave Jei (my roomie) his card and asked me to e-mail the full size pork photo- so I did. I mean, of course I did! In that e-mail I mentioned that I had been planning on applying, which made it really ironic that all of this was happening.

He e-mailed me back saying:

Hi Nicole. Thanks for the email and pictures .

If you are still planning on applying tomorrow , call my assistant to set up an interview. I have some morning and afternoon appointments open.

Cheers

So I phoned and left a message on his voicemail. Ten minutes later he phoned me back. Ted Cizma. On my phone. I was kind of shocked in that I expected his assistant, but apparently she had forwarded all of his calls straight to his phone. We set up the interview (this was yesterday) at one in the afternoon. It went really well. He told me a lot of things, and offered a lot of personal insight into the world of the commercial kitchen.

I was awed and honored to be there, really. And at that point it didn’t matter to me whether or not I was offered a position. I was sitting in the presence of a culinary mind that had been recognized by his peers and the rest of the world as a master of his craft.

But he did offer me a position. A full time spot, working one of the resort’s restaurants named Sweetwater. I’ll be scheduled to work breakfast, lunch and dinner shifts, offering me the opportunity to experience all aspects of the kitchen.

I’ll be putting my two weeks in at Bob Evans tomorrow. It is unfortunate that it didn’t work out quite the way I’d hoped. Especially as it seems even more complications have arisen. One of my co-workers is out for a few weeks and my GM expects me to close five nights a week. And he didn’t ask me. That’s the part that gets me. He phoned and said, “By the way, Lance is going to be gone for a few weeks, so…I’ll need to close every night you work from now on. At least for a while. And I guess I really am going to have to hire someone new.”

This whole thing is just sort of falling in my lap. Which is more than exciting and terrifying at the same time. I’m glad I got the time in at Bob Evans that I did. It was helpful and helped me learn that a kitchen is where I’m meant to be. And now I am moving on to something bigger and better. The pay is higher, and I couldn’t pay for better experience. I’m nervous, though. Bob Evans is really relaxed, whereas something like Sweetwater will obviously be a much higher caliber stop.

But I’m determined to do it and do it well. This is the chance I was hoping for and I’ll be damned if I screw it up.

I pulled my yummr page up and this was sitting in my inbox:

Great shot of the belly. Glad you liked aerie. You have to try our new oxtail
& tuna “surf n turf”

Ted
tcizma@gtresort.com

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TED CIZMA! TED EFFING CIZMA! The guy that wrote the menu at the resort?! The guy that was named Food and Wine’s Top New Chef in 2000! The guy that has worked for multi million dollar restaurants! YEAH! THAT GUY SENT ME A MESSAGE THAT HE LIKED MY PHOTO OF HIS FOOD!

AND GAVE ME SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT TO TRY NEXT TIME!

*OMGSWOON*

Man, it’s feels like Christmas.