Kitchens, ghost and otherwise
My tiny kitchen
Despite my whining aboutstandard time, I woke up feeling rested and full of energy this morning. Sophielet me sleep until 7:45 daylight time—I am probably going to spend from now toMarch adjusting the time to daylight time which will continue to be thestandard I follow. Anyway, an hour later when I’d dozed off, my brother wokeme, calling from the hospital. I was glad enough to talk to him that I didn’tmind being pulled out of a funny, funky dream. We chatted a bit, but I didn’thave my hearing aids and pneumonia makes him wheeze so that I had a hard timeunderstanding. Still, I was delighted he called, even if he did think I’dcalled him.
I meant to write about ghostkitchens today, because the new title of the latest Irene adventure is Irenein a Ghost Kitchen, but before I got to that I spent a lot of time in myvery real, definitely not a ghost kitchen. My project for the day was to makebeef tips in gravy for dinner tonight, and this morning I got it put together—seasonedand browned the meat, sauteed onions and garlic, made the gravy. It’s in thefridge now but will come out to simmer for at least a couple of hours after Inap. And the cooking dishes are all washed and put away. Yes, I am feeling veryrighteous. It also smells delicious. Decisions, decisions—should we have mashedpotatoes or noodles with it? I thought of polenta but I don’t have enough inthe freezer.
These days I’m in a kitchen alot, whether it be my own, my imaginary dream kitchen, sometimes my mom’skitchen of memory, or Irene’s ghost kitchen. Irene wanted a café, like she hasin France, but as Chance, her billionaire lover said, “A ghost kitchen is muchcheaper.” Ghost kitchens, also known as cloud kitchens or dark kitchens, existonly to serve online orders and deliver food. There is no on-site service, andthe customer has no interaction with the kitchen staff. Irene’s kitchen servesher own gourmet dishes, but some ghost kitchens serve several popular brands offood at one. Ghost kitchens have much lower overhead—they don’t have to be in afashionable or well-traveled location, and they don’t require nearly as muchspace as a dine-in restaurant; they have no front-of-the-house staff such as hostor hostess, wait staff, bus boys, etc. The restaurants either maintain theirown delivery service or use one of the many delivery apps such as Door Dash or UberEats.
Ghost kitchens existed beforepandemic but really flourished during that quarantine. Customers didn’t want togo out to eat, restaurants couldn’t hire enough wait staff, some restaurantswere forced to close completely. Today, with quarantine lifted, ghost kitchensare still popular. Some major restaurant chains operate ghost kitchens underanother name: Conviction Chicken is the ghost kitchen of TGI Friday’s, CosmicWings and Neighborhood Wings are operated by Applebees, Chili’s has Maggiano’sItalian Classics and Just Wings. The list is long.
Sometimes ghost kitchens areshared—one building may house several, or an independent ghost kitchen may rentspace in an existing restaurant. A business called Fort Worth Food Works housesseveral ghost kitchens and offers all the facilities and services a restaurant needs.Perfect for a start-up chef.
Irene’s ghost kitchen, ofcourse, is none of those. It’s the whim of a faux French chef. She is, however,going to offer small cooking classes in her kitchen. First up, the French classicpopularized by Julia Child (shh! Don’t say that to Irene!): boeuf bourguignon.Then maybe a good hearty cassoulet; perhaps Coquilles St. Jacque (scallops inwine sauce—someone once asked me what I fixed for company the night before, andwhen I said Coquilles St. Jacque he said, “Gesundheit!” so I always explain it).Lobster thermidor and coq au vin may be on Irene’s class last, but daily she’llfix appetizers such as gougeres, desserts like crème brulee, and special orders—hersecret liver pate. Will she make a success of the kitchen? Who knows? Certainlynot me at this point, though I hope to know by next spring.
Speaking of recipes I ranacross a custom that is new to me but apparently worldwide: putting recipes ofthe tombstones of people, mostly women, revered for their cooking skills. Wantto make Bonnie Johnson’s No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies? Just go to the cemetery inNome, Alaska and get the recipe. Or read about it on Gastro Obscura Thefamily recipes carved into gravestones (mailchi.mp)
Happy Sunday night!
