The thing about owning a business is that it can inveigle its way into the rest of our world. I literally had to force myself to take four days off during the Easter break. Such is my passion though, that it was still very difficult to switch off and almost impossible not to sneak into my office.
In my sleep, my right brain was busy creating new business building ideas for Osteopaths. It thought up ways to bring more information to you to get your business on track. It even wrote the bare bones of this blog!
Clearly, I needed to m
ake lots of plans for the weekend to keep me away from the laptop. So we decided to have a big family lunch on Good Friday. My husband’s kids came over along with our adorable 18month old Grandson. My teenage boys were here too and I cooked up a huge roast beef lunch with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and parsnips and (my favourite) vegetables baked in a cheese sauce. Then as it was all coming together, I scraped all the tasty caramelised meat juices from the roasting dish, added a little flour, then the water saved from boiling the veg and created the most exquisite and luscious gravy. A splash of the magical Cross & Blackwell’s gravy browning and it was ready to spread its hot and dark velvety gorgeousness all over our plates.
Even little Jake loved the dinner and swirled his finger in his gravy and said ‘mmmm’ as he licked it off, giggling cheekily! Everyone had seconds, barely leaving room for the homemade strawberry meringue roulade.
Then on Easter Sunday, David announced that he was giving me the day off from the stove! Some six months ago, he had joined a rather posh golf club nearby. He raved about how tricky the course was, the awesome condition of the fairways and how fantastic the clubhouse was.
I put on a rather fetching frock and was eagerly expectant as we entered the grandiose building. Trophies adorned shelving high up around the walls and we read long lists of winners and captains as we sipped on a refreshing gin and tonic.
Hungrily we headed into the restaurant but my heart sank as I saw the carvery. The unsmiling Chef served up the sliced beef and I added a soggy Yorkshire pudding, a deep fried ‘roast’ potato, some squeaky French beans, a bland cauliflower cheese and spooned over some generic and glutinous gravy.
I hacked away at the tough gristly meat and did my best with the second rate meal. Thankfully nobody asked me about it as my husband always squirms at my fussy honesty! Meanwhile the waitress welcomed more golfers and their wives and as they all doddered up to the carvery and piled up their plates it was obvious that I was the youngest person in the building!
Then the waitress took dessert orders. Apart from the usual apple pie and raspberry pavlova there was, she said, a peach sauce with a zaba… zaga… zagabon. She admitted to each table that she didn’t know what it was and she certainly couldn’t enunciate it but she did her level best to sell the unpronounceable white stuff whilst talking to the elderly diners as though they were small children.
Suddenly, I realised that I was spending my Easter Sunday struggling to stomach a second rate, mass produced meal in some sort of bizarre golfing care home! I abandoned my half eaten meal because all I could think of was the delicious lunch two days earlier.
Secondly, I grasped what the missing ingredient was here. Passion. If you’re willing to pour warm Bisto gravy onto your meal then don’t expect it to be memorable!
When I built up my ready meal catering business in Athens, it didn’t matter how late it was at night as I fulfilled my orders for the next morning. I put passion and love into every single beef wellington, lasagne and hot cross bun that I produced. I wouldn’t sell a less than perfect blueberry muffin. Indeed the boys knew my standards and with covetous eyes would eagerly point out anything even remotely defective.
And this weekend it became clear to me that where there is no passion, there is mediocrity. Where there is no love, there is no cause to care about. Where there is no ownership there is no reason to strive to be the best you can be.
That’s why we love our work. That’s why we continue to study and learn even more about our craft. Most of all when our passion is palpable, people love to come back for more.
