The Wind Attack

Since the summer of 2006, I’ve had the great pleasure to work at a small animation studio in Hollywood. Our studio specializes in stop motion animation, and we’re best known for our production of over 100 episodes of Cartoon Network’s Emmy Award-winning show, Robot Chicken.

Media making has always been a passion of mine and I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to work on such a cool show with such a fine group of creative professionals.

At about the same time I started this job, I began to develop a serious interest in food. This interest has grown over the years and I’ve always wondered about what it would be like to work in food professionally.

This past January, an opportunity presented itself in a way I thought could only happen in a dream. My bosses pitched me on a job that they created just for me: to be the company chef.

I get to experiment in food all day with someone else’s money and still get to work with all these cool media makers? How could I say no?

So here I am, several months later, one week off from starting lunch service for our crew. It’s been a long road of planning and designing and building my kitchen. I have lots of help and support, but I’ve had my hand in most every aspect of the creation of our company kitchen space. Buying equipment, cleaning, sanding, painting, struggling to stay within my budget. It’s been quite the project.

I’ve got lots of stainless steel, mostly used. It took over an hour to get the fridge in the space. It literally weighs hundreds of pounds… and wouldn’t fit through doors on the furniture dolly. It was exciting to finally get it in the space, and more exciting when we finally got it turned on.

We’ve got gas… and fire!

A giant wall of chalkboard paint for menus, ideas, shopping lists and general graffiti.

So many menus to plan! It’s a wonderful challenge.

How do I adapt my cooking repertoire for a crowd? I’m talking 20–50 hungry artists everyday!

Will I be able to satisfy both the herbivores and carnivores? The cilantro haters? Will I be called a health food nazi for banishing sodas and Lucky Charms?

So far the enthusiasm from the crew has been great. People are excited about having real, tasty food prepared right in the studio. And I’m excited to do be in charge of it. I get to make really cool people happy through my cooking and then they get to make really cool animation.

I’m also a little bit scared. I know it’s going to be exhausting work. I’m leaving the comfort of a desk job to being constantly on my feet. Will cooking professionally drain my passion for food, or will it grow it even stronger? I hope for the latter, but I’ll find out soon enough!