Cooking, I've decided is the best thing in the world. When you're upset it becomes theraputic. When you need to add a little spice to life, it becomes an aphrodisiac. I've been teased that I cook with my moods, that when I'm happy, I cook, when I'm sad, I cook. You get the point. I can't help it, not really. If I didn't have cooking, I don't know what I'd do.
I once thought that as soon as I got out of school, I'd go to The Tsukuba Cooking Academy, which is one of the best cooking schools in Japan. I would have given my soul for that chance. Things didn't turn out like I planned. They never do. My parents died before I could tell them about my dream and the trustees who controlled my steady income for so long, the people who allowed me to be independent, didn't think that cooking school was a worthwhile investment for me to make. So instead I didn't go to school at all after graduating.
Sometimes I wish I had. Ami went to the best college in the country and straight into medicine. Minako, she went to acting school in America, a place called Julliard. Even Rei, who seemed stuck at the Hikawa Shrine went to college to major in theology so she would be a better priestess. And Usagi married Mamoru as soon as she graduated but is now in the process of attending night school, at Luna's insistence, and learning political science. But me, well, I apprenticed at some high class restaurants and while it's been a good education of it's own, I still feel as though I am missing something.
The thing is, what the girls don't know is, I'm working right now with a publisher in Boston on a book. It's a first in a series of basic cooking how to's and the reaction from critics have been good. I don't talk down to people in my book. I don't do it in real life when I'm walking Minako and Usagi through recipes and I figure people want to be treated as intelligent beings, even when a lot of them aren't. My publisher tells me that if it's as successful as he thinks it'll be, I'll be able to have a series of books and quite possibly a cooking show of my own - one that he says will rival Martha Stewart's or even better, Iron Chef. Which I think is impossible because both programs are the best and I'm just a lowly nobody chef working too many hours in an up and coming restaurant.
The thought of being on Tv scares the hell out of me. I've never liked any kind of attention like that. When I got in trouble at school, it wasn't for attention. It was for the simple fact that I wasn't going to allow myself to be bullied. When my parents died and I discovered a ton of relatives I'd never heard of, all who wanted to adopt me and coddle me with sympathy and give me everything I could possibly want, I shied away from it all and instead chose a quiet life of independence. Even after I came of age and inherited the massive amount of money left to me by my parents, I still stayed away from anything too extravagant. But this fame thing I'm not even sure I could handle. Let Minako have her millions of adoring fans; she was born to be an entertainer and recognized and swooned over. Not me.
But just in case any network executives come knocking at my door, I have a ton of new recipes I've been working on. When I'm not working, I'm at my home in my kitechen experiementing with food. I've wasted a good bit of money by having to throw some of my less successful experiments out but the ones who've been saved from the trash bin have tested to perfection. The girls are the first bunch of guinea pigs and if they okay a dish, it goes into circulation for a week at my restaurant. If the results are good, I put the recipe aside and hold it for my collection. The regulars at the restaurant have become accustomed to seeing new dishes appear and disappear without warning and they know I like to experiment so lately they have started to ask. I know I sound pleased when I say this but, they tell me overwhelmingly I should have my own cooking show.
One day, when Usagi and Mamoru are Queen and King, I'm going to have the best opportunities for my cooking. I always say that. Once they are crowned and I've finished my duty as Sailor Jupiter, I'm going to own hundreds of the best restaurants around the world. People will come into to one and automatically think "Mako." And when I get married, which I expect to one day, my husband will help me run them.
I've got all these great plans in my head, most of them beginning with someday, but I figure with this book deal, I'm on my way. Until then, I'll cook for my customers at my little restaurant, I'll cook for my friends, but most of all, I'll cook for myself. After all, it is the best thing in the world.
~~~~
AN: First, The Tsukuba Cooking Academy is a real cooking academy in Japan. I'm using it in another fic I'm working on with Mako/Lita but sadly, the website is all in Japanese so I can't find the requirements to get in to use in the story. Anyway, I don't own anything having to do with Martha Stewart, she's got her empire built fine on her own; I don't own anything having to do with Iron Chef, which program I love - Kaga-san and Morimoto rock! These were just two very good cooking programs I enjoy and I use their names without profit.
Second, this is the 3rd installment of the "Thoughts" series where I basically sit here for an hour and type whatever comes into my head. They aren't even edited except for grammar. Which is a style of writing I'm beginning to appreciate for the pure fact that if I just sit and get into character mode and get into the character's head, I can just take one moment out of their life and put it to words. It's different than most of my stuff because it's plotless. There is no drama except for what the character feels like saying in that moment and how much of the inner character gets revealed is all dependent on them. I know it sounds crazy to speak like I'm channeling or something but when you take what you know about the character, infuse the "memories" of events that have happened, and, taking in their personality, simply look at how you'd feel in every moment of every thing you've seen, it's relatively easy to let them speak through you.
I once thought that as soon as I got out of school, I'd go to The Tsukuba Cooking Academy, which is one of the best cooking schools in Japan. I would have given my soul for that chance. Things didn't turn out like I planned. They never do. My parents died before I could tell them about my dream and the trustees who controlled my steady income for so long, the people who allowed me to be independent, didn't think that cooking school was a worthwhile investment for me to make. So instead I didn't go to school at all after graduating.
Sometimes I wish I had. Ami went to the best college in the country and straight into medicine. Minako, she went to acting school in America, a place called Julliard. Even Rei, who seemed stuck at the Hikawa Shrine went to college to major in theology so she would be a better priestess. And Usagi married Mamoru as soon as she graduated but is now in the process of attending night school, at Luna's insistence, and learning political science. But me, well, I apprenticed at some high class restaurants and while it's been a good education of it's own, I still feel as though I am missing something.
The thing is, what the girls don't know is, I'm working right now with a publisher in Boston on a book. It's a first in a series of basic cooking how to's and the reaction from critics have been good. I don't talk down to people in my book. I don't do it in real life when I'm walking Minako and Usagi through recipes and I figure people want to be treated as intelligent beings, even when a lot of them aren't. My publisher tells me that if it's as successful as he thinks it'll be, I'll be able to have a series of books and quite possibly a cooking show of my own - one that he says will rival Martha Stewart's or even better, Iron Chef. Which I think is impossible because both programs are the best and I'm just a lowly nobody chef working too many hours in an up and coming restaurant.
The thought of being on Tv scares the hell out of me. I've never liked any kind of attention like that. When I got in trouble at school, it wasn't for attention. It was for the simple fact that I wasn't going to allow myself to be bullied. When my parents died and I discovered a ton of relatives I'd never heard of, all who wanted to adopt me and coddle me with sympathy and give me everything I could possibly want, I shied away from it all and instead chose a quiet life of independence. Even after I came of age and inherited the massive amount of money left to me by my parents, I still stayed away from anything too extravagant. But this fame thing I'm not even sure I could handle. Let Minako have her millions of adoring fans; she was born to be an entertainer and recognized and swooned over. Not me.
But just in case any network executives come knocking at my door, I have a ton of new recipes I've been working on. When I'm not working, I'm at my home in my kitechen experiementing with food. I've wasted a good bit of money by having to throw some of my less successful experiments out but the ones who've been saved from the trash bin have tested to perfection. The girls are the first bunch of guinea pigs and if they okay a dish, it goes into circulation for a week at my restaurant. If the results are good, I put the recipe aside and hold it for my collection. The regulars at the restaurant have become accustomed to seeing new dishes appear and disappear without warning and they know I like to experiment so lately they have started to ask. I know I sound pleased when I say this but, they tell me overwhelmingly I should have my own cooking show.
One day, when Usagi and Mamoru are Queen and King, I'm going to have the best opportunities for my cooking. I always say that. Once they are crowned and I've finished my duty as Sailor Jupiter, I'm going to own hundreds of the best restaurants around the world. People will come into to one and automatically think "Mako." And when I get married, which I expect to one day, my husband will help me run them.
I've got all these great plans in my head, most of them beginning with someday, but I figure with this book deal, I'm on my way. Until then, I'll cook for my customers at my little restaurant, I'll cook for my friends, but most of all, I'll cook for myself. After all, it is the best thing in the world.
~~~~
AN: First, The Tsukuba Cooking Academy is a real cooking academy in Japan. I'm using it in another fic I'm working on with Mako/Lita but sadly, the website is all in Japanese so I can't find the requirements to get in to use in the story. Anyway, I don't own anything having to do with Martha Stewart, she's got her empire built fine on her own; I don't own anything having to do with Iron Chef, which program I love - Kaga-san and Morimoto rock! These were just two very good cooking programs I enjoy and I use their names without profit.
Second, this is the 3rd installment of the "Thoughts" series where I basically sit here for an hour and type whatever comes into my head. They aren't even edited except for grammar. Which is a style of writing I'm beginning to appreciate for the pure fact that if I just sit and get into character mode and get into the character's head, I can just take one moment out of their life and put it to words. It's different than most of my stuff because it's plotless. There is no drama except for what the character feels like saying in that moment and how much of the inner character gets revealed is all dependent on them. I know it sounds crazy to speak like I'm channeling or something but when you take what you know about the character, infuse the "memories" of events that have happened, and, taking in their personality, simply look at how you'd feel in every moment of every thing you've seen, it's relatively easy to let them speak through you.