Chapter: Where Cooks Come from. If any of you fine people have spent any time around a golf course (especially private ones) you may have at some point noticed somebody of Mexican decent doing something: watching the pro shop, playing golf, or mowing the greens. That is a fact. I've been a member of Brookwood golf course for my entire life and we've always had the same group of Mexican workers tending to the course. I guess the parallel I'm drawing here is the inter-connectivity between golf courses and the same for the food world. I have watched my golf pro have a conversation with our superintendent that went more or less how Bordain describes finding a soue chef.
Kevin (golf pro): "Hey Raul, Javier (I am not making these names up) is out sick today and we need to cut the greens before the Invitational, do you know anybody?"
Raul: "Let me ask my cousin."
Golf brings people together like food. People like to eat together, people like to play golf together. People like to with their families and friends, people like to go hit a bucket of balls together with families and friends. People grow up working at a golf shop or course, some people grow up in a kitchen. The things that bring us together are often times inherited from our parents or our cultures. It's hot and flat in mexico. There's no snow in Mexico. If you build it they will golf. I've played golf with 7 different greenskeepers at a time. They ALL new each other, they ALL grew up around the same areas in Mexico, and they ALL knew other friends and family members who worked on other golf courses. I am not making this up.
I recall a late night of golf I played with the very same Raul and Javier. Both of these men redefine bad ass. They are scrappy, competitive golfers who smoke, drink, hoot, holler, and talk a lot of shit while they play. Raul and Javier played 9 holes after work every night, and they always played for the same thing: a bottle of tequila. Sometimes fact is more amusing than fiction.
Hey Andres- don't worry, I believe you... you're not making this up. I am a golfer too! I'm happy that I checked out your blog post today. You are very interesting to make the point that life is a network- it brings people together over common interests. In a sense this idea is also where the elitism in this book is born that we talked about in class today. Bourdain can go anywhere and do anything because people know and respect him, and aim to please him. Even in Cambodia where he tries to pull the "rich white guy card" as we said, he has a sense of self understanding, and this is essential to using the network to ones own advantage. I am smiling as I read everything you write about golf and the knowledge people have of one another. It's so true that it is a consistent community, the same people showing up each day and build a reputation, like the food world. We should play sometime!
ReplyDelete-Charlotte
"If you build it, they will golf." I thought that was hilarious. I've played a decent amount of golf in my life but I've never noticed this, so I found it very interesting. I second Charlotte's comment, when the spring comes going golfing would be awesome.
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