The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman follows The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef, neither of which I have read.  Thankfully, they were not prerequisites for understanding or enjoying The Reach of a Chef.

Thinking about food, cooking and restaurants through the eyes and minds of chefs was interesting and almost made me want to be a chef myself.  Even more, it made me want to eat at the restaurants at the best and most innovative chefs in the world.  Specifically, I am determined to make it to Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago.

So determined that I wrote a [fictional] poem for a contest on Eater to win tickets to an book/tasting event hosted by Achatz in New York on November 6.  I don’t know yet if I won.  And as far as I can tell, Eater is taking its (his? her?) sweet time in choosing a winner, and even in determining a deadline by which to choose a winner.

But I do have it written on my calendar.  I do, after all, enjoy contests.

There are two kinds of people: those who enter contests and those who do not.

My friends often comment on how lucky I am to often win things.

“Not so much lucky,” I specify, “as I pursue the opportunities.” …Huh?

Really, though. The more contests you enter, the more likely you are to win. I have won:

-A one year membership to Crunch gyms thanks to a newspaper advertisement

AND

-A one year’s supply of Stonyfield Farms yogurt & ice cream thanks to the above photo