volume 7, number 11 November 2002
New Mexico's Premier Food, Arts and Lifestyle Magazine

For many of us in the food industry, Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday. Free of any religious connotations or ceremonies, a lavish and extravagant meal is finally allowed to take center stage. Most family-owned restaurants close on this day and some even take the rare opportunity for a long weekend. (Call ahead if you're looking for dinner Nov. 29 through Dec. 1!) But even if they take the day off, for many professional chefs it's merely the same thing in a different place. Instead of cooking the regular menu at work, they're whipping up turkey and fixin's at home, sometimes for a smaller crowd and sometimes not! The most miserable of the lot, including many hotel and resort cooks, have to work a Thanksgiving dinner or buffet and juggle their own dinners around that schedule. One year, working at a local hotel, I had to prep for a Thanksgiving buffet from 5am to 1pm and then run home to throw together my own dinner for 20 guests. I was slumped in my chair and passed out cold by 8pm! What might surprise you most is the number of professional cooks who leave Thanksgiving dinner cooking to their husbands, wives, mothers and grandmas. Though they often have one or two special contributions, many chefs feel the same way most Americans do about this traditional meal: Don't mess with it. Grandma has always done it best so why bother trying to beat her at her own game? In this issue we do a little of both, with a recipe for traditional gravy and an innovative twist on Thanksgiving dessert: pumpkin sorbet. No matter where you are, who's cooking, or what you're eating, remember to give extra thanks to the chefs!

Gwyneth

<< Thanksgiving Pies With a New Mexican Flair

November 2002 Contents

Around Albuquerque >>