Family and friends

What in life is greater than family and friends?  Absolutely nothing!  As I go through all these crazy workdays and weeks it makes me realize more than ever that the only thing that makes it possible are those closest to me.  I am so lucky to have an incredible family that has always been supportive, a wife that always seems to understand and friends that have been there for me through the good and the bad.

I love you all...thank you,  Michaelhangin out at moms

Comments

[Mark]

Michael I see your mother has a collection of Christmas Spode. As a son of mother who also trotted out those dishes every winter, I offer my deepest sympathy.

[Natalie Sztern]

michael, you are one face to your mother...such a punim...

[Brian Torri]

Curious: Chef Symon, what kind of camera are you using to get those huge pixel dimensions to your photographs? It's like nearly 3500 x 2500 pixels or so, and I'm pretty sure my 10 MP smaller camera doesn't do that.

Also, you are wise, I think, to realize this, how much people you love make you possible. It's an eternal human condition and process, that balancing between the individual and the various societies, large and small, that they find themselves in. Individual ambition and the variety of things that come from our societies—values, support, insights, for example—mingle in an endless dance our entire lives. God willing, it's a giving dance in which we give to others what we hope to receive.

I wish you well in your career and certainly hope that it's as long as you want it to be. Thank you so much for being such a great representative of Cleveland, its spirit and its peoples.

[Jonas Kiessling]

Chef Symon as a Senior in High School and an aspiring Chef i only have one dilemma about attending culinary school do you believe that being a Chef has effected you having a Family or being around your Family.

[Jonas Kiessling]

Chef Symon as a Senior in High School and an aspiring Chef i only have one dilemma about attending culinary school do you believe that being a Chef has effected you having a Family or being around your Family.

[mdsymon]

it does take a commitment to working long and crazy hours and often being apart from family...the key is making the commitment to your family and making family time..ms

[Deb]

Great post Michael! So fun to see the shots of you with your family. As the Mom of a chef who had to go to work on Christmas, (he has yet to make it big a la Symon), I agree. Even chefs get the occasional day off and making time for friends and family has to be a priority.

Also- made your pickled peppers yesterday from the recipe on Ruhlman's blog post. Waiting to see how they'll taste but they LOOK gorgeous.

[Kimberly Nichols]

Greetings, Chef,

I had the opportunity to dine at Lola for my birthday dinner Friday night. Dinner was absolutely delicious. My husband and I had the "bacon" as a starter. I'm still thinking about that dish. Wondrous.

Also, I organized a small field trip to Roast last Wed. with some fellow culinary students from Schoolcraft College. Beef cheek pierogies? One word: yum.

[Candy Freed]

Chef Symon, hello!

I know that you are very busy and that you probably get thousands of emails and posts to your blog, but I wanted to say what an inspiration you are to our family. We don't have much, materially, but we have each other and that is priceless. Our family shares a love of food and of fun. Your cooking and inspiration are central to that idea. I just thought you might get a kick out of this story...
My father, for reasons unknown, loves to eat SPAM. This stared a small competition among close family members several years ago called "Lakewood SPAMFEST". We met at my Aunt's house in Lakewood and our goal was to creatively hide the SPAM in food to make it palatable for us non-SPAM eaters, as well as have some fun. This event has blossomed into a much bigger event and now requires the rental of a church hall in Lakewood. We ask chef judges to come and vote alongside all of the participants and we have prizes for the top entries. There is a SPAM-carving contest (again, the brainchild of my father), a SPAM puzzle contest, and this year we will play "SPAM or no SPAM" where we sample various SPAM look-alikes and try to identify the actual SPAM. We even have a website:
http://www.geocities.com/lkwdspamfest/Pix.htm

This year, because she is such a big fan of yours, my mother is making SPAM ice cream (inspired by your 6am Special). The event is tonight and I can't wait to try her ice cream! You are cordially invited to attend, however, I know that the demands of your schedule must be extremely prohibitive. If you can't come tonight (very short notice, sorry) perhaps you can come next year.

We have not been to your restaurants yet but are planning to come for my mom's 50th birthday in June. We can't wait! We keep checking the menu to see what we might like to order.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted you to know that you're a huge influence on our family and that family means everything to me, as it does to you. God bless and good luck!!

[mdsymon]

candy...good luck in the spam off...hope to see you in june..ms

[Arundathi]

Chef Symon: Congratulations on the James Beard nomination! And all the very best!

[Candy Freed]

Chef Symon,

I took second place in the SPAM-fest, again. Oh, by the way...the SPAM ice cream came in 3rd. Thanks! We're also coming in to Lola for our 5th anniversary on May 1st. Congrats on the Beard nomination!

Candy Freed

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[Karen]

hey mike ... i love watching you on iron chef!! you are my favorite. i'm looking forward both to following you here and eating at one of your restaurants the next time i'm in cleveland!

karen in louisville

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I'm sad all the time because i have no good friends. The group of people i hang out with are nice but they're all best friends and i just kind of tag along. And everyone else in my school are snobs. Last year I was in the "popular" group but they started ignoring me so i stood up for myself and ended up with these two girls who seemed really nice but it happend again and now i have no really good best friends. Im afraid this will happen again and i hate everyone in my school. All anyone cares about is looks, and although many people tell me im beautiful no one still wants to be friends with me. I dont care about looks of other people friends wise but everyone else does and no one wants to be friends. Im very nice but the problem is that either the people are snobs or they already have a best friend and wont let anyone in and I dont want to be friends with them. What should I do?

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I love watching you on iron chef!! you are my favorite. I'm looking forward both to following you here and eating at one of your restaurants the next time I'm in Cleveland!

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