How do I get invited into kitchens as a stranger?
This is a familiar challenge in the food industry, especially for cooks in search of broadening their experience with stages.
There are cooks who use every connection to close in on degrees of separation. There are cooks who send emails to the world’s Michelin-starred or Pellegrino-listed restaurants and hope for a response. There are cooks who camp outside doors of restaurants they wish to work in, even though they have already been rejected.
I went through this ritual three years ago when I left my job in New York City to travel across the Asia-Pacific and stage at restaurants in the region — all without having contacts, but trusting in the journey to open doors along the way.
Could I apply the same strategy as I traveled throughout rural Sulawesi?
ASLI FOOD PROJECT 