What Inspired You?

I have been doing some reading lately on others who have written bestselling books. Well actually only one so far that I completed yesterday which was the Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

What I found most interesting was how he was inspired to become a cook in the first place by trying that Vichyssoise on the cruise ship when he was with his parents. Then afterwards the oysters in France. Food became something more to him that just something you stuff down your throat each day.

As first a bartender then a waiter I cannot remember offhand anything that inspired me to get into the business in the beginning. There was no aha moment. I didn't drink a beer under a tree when I was 17 and say this is it for me.

I just sort of stumbled into it through a bartending course that I took 30 years ago. I don't know why I enrolled in the course at that time other than the fact I might have read in the ad that you could go on and get a job bartending. Maybe I just thought it would be a fun thing to do. I wasn't thinking of traveling or anything like that at that time.

In school when you are asked what you want to be when you grow up no one blurts out I want to be a bartender or waiter. It just sort of happens. No one thinks of it as a career.

The only reason I can think why I have endured in this business all this time is I like the fast paced action of it all. Everyday is different and the money isn't bad. I always liked change.

My question for anyone out there is what inspired you to be a part of this business and for those of you who do something else what inspired you to do what you do? Or was it just a fluke like it seemed for me way back when I took a course just to see what it would be like?