Welcome to A Chef’s Notebook
Each new cook is encouraged with different levels of intensity, to keep a notebook of all the recipes, lists, and observations that are involved in working in a restaurant kitchen. These pocket sized, handwritten pages could be used one day as a basis for a future career. I myself have several and they are filled with sketches, ideas that never came to fruition, (a few that did) order lists and every other piece of information I deemed necessary to remember. That is a chef’s notebook. We hold that knowledge bestowed upon us by our peers and mentors dearly. One day, maybe, to be used and passed on again, as is the tradition in this profession.
About
My name is Ronnie Patterson. I began my cooking career in 2005 at 21 years old by attending the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, California.
I have worked in many restaurants and hotels in San Francisco, Marin county, Oregon and Colorado. While I was Sous Chef at La Folie restaurant in San Francisco, I met and fell in love with a young French girl who invited me back to the South of France to work with her at her family’s hotel and restaurant. At the end of the season, I was offered a portion of their business if I would stay and cook, regardless of whether my relationship with this girl worked out. I said “yes,”of course.
We worked for 4 years together and decided after that time to try for more prestige and a higher level of dining. The family sold the hotel, Alienor and I got married, and we moved to Bordeaux, France to open our own restaurant. Now, 16 years after the start of my career, I have a wife, a young daughter, a busy restaurant, and all the crazyness that goes with it.
In 2021 there are a lot of food blogs. I hope that this blog, full of stories from my past, and my adventures as a father and husband serve as entertaining reading with informative recipes created over a career in professional kitchens. I want it to be relatable to industry professionals and passionate home cooks alike.