Well, hello again!

It’s been quite some time since MixedSoup last stirred the pot, but apparently I haven’t quite finished eating, drinking, wandering around the world, or getting myself into the occasional predicament.

So here we go again.

This time, the adventure is taking me to Japan, with a few stops along the way.

First up is Sacramento, California, where I’m enjoying some much-anticipated time with family before heading across the Pacific. Getting to spend time with my brother and his family, and my sister and hers, is a wonderful way to begin this adventure. The people are, after all, every bit as important as the places. Sometimes even more so.

Of course, being surrounded by family has never prevented me from pursuing the important business of finding something good to eat and a decent glass of wine.

A visit to Betty Bistro & Wine Bar produced a beautiful charcuterie board, a glass of white wine, and a very satisfactory reminder that culinary research needn’t be particularly arduous.

Meanwhile, I’m attempting to learn a little Japanese. Duolingo assures me I’m making progress. Whether anyone in Japan will understand a word I say remains to be seen.

And then there’s the packing. Let’s just say the shoes have opinions.

The Main Event: Japan!

The centerpiece of this adventure is a culinary journey with Modern Adventure, a travel company that builds immersive experiences around food, culture, and the people who bring both to life.

I’ll be traveling with a group led by Seattle chef Brady Williams, exploring Japan through its kitchens, markets, traditions, and, naturally, its food. I’ll save the itinerary and all its delicious details for another post.

But first, there’s Hawaii, where I’ll spend a little time before crossing the Pacific.

So welcome back to MixedSoup.

The pot’s back on the stove. Let’s see what happens.

More to come from Sacramento, Hawaii, and Japan.

I started writing this post in 2014, shortly after leaving cooking school in Edinburgh. I never finished it, but coming across it again made me think the story was worth telling.

Well then, according to Mr. Wilde, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and I have a crusty brain, because recent events have come as a complete surprise to me. I did expect some students to drop out of cooking school, but I certainly didn’t foresee one of them being yours truly.

Schools of this style are known to be fast-paced and mentally and physically challenging. I knew that going in. What wasn’t working for me was trying to execute several new-to-me recipes at a time, under the pressure of a madcap kitchen, and then being told what was wrong with them all. That’s just how it works. Again, I knew that…but for some reason I was done.

Looking back, I can see that the school just wasn’t a good match for me. At other cooking schools, I’d enjoyed the camaraderie as much as the cooking. Here, I didn’t feel that same connection, and my age wasn’t particularly well represented among the students. There was also a lot of preparation and homework, and somewhere along the way, the fun had gone out of it for me.

Then came the omelet.

During the last critique of the day, the chef suggested that, in the future, I should cook my omelet for three seconds longer.

Three. Seconds.

I kid you not.

I understand why that kind of precision matters. The school was—and is—geared toward preparing people to work in professional kitchens. But the omelet helped me realize I was looking for something different.

The financial commitment gave me pause. It was a lot of money to spend on a program I didn’t finish. But I wasn’t getting what I wanted from the experience, and I decided I didn’t need to complete it simply because I’d started.

All these years later, I don’t regret that decision. And I still love to cook—even if my omelets might occasionally be three seconds short.