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Whats Hot With Lena 4 - madeintheurl

        

What’s Hot with Lena


Episode 4:
Celebrating A Year of Cooking for the General Public


It’s a lot less like The Bear and a lot more like Ratatouille
(I spend this whole text block talking about myself by the way)


Written by: Magdalena O’Neal

January 31st, 2024


Hi, hello, it’s me, I’m sorry! I hope you haven’t forgotten about me after my week away. I put in the cliffnotes each week that if I am hungover you will most likely not be hearing from me—and last week was deeper than a hangover.



Last weekend I embarked on my first solo pop up venture and it wasn’t just my first ever on my solo dolo, it was also my first ever culinary event in another country.

If my absence from telling you all What’s Hot is an indication of anything it should serve to let you all know I was in a state worse than hungover the day following the event, I was physically and mentally a shell of a chef. I’m talking about this publicly because I don’t think enough people who work in kitchens do it.

Cooking is the definition of a labor of love in my opinion and I am so excited I get to do it for a living. Up until last year I was doing private dinners, food styling, writing restaurant reviews, working graveyard shifts making donuts, and anything else that let me get my hands on a knife.



This past year I became my very own version of what it means to be a chef. Not clocking in (but also somehow never clocking out) and deciding who, where, and when I wanted to cook. Watching people have a Ratatouille moment like when Remy ate the cheese with a grape as they take a bite of my food is the definition of my WHY.

However, few people consider the physical toll it takes on our sweet little bodies. No, it’s not like The Bear, but it is fucking exhausting; your legs hurt, your hands are covered in burns (mine specifically as I type this), your toes maybe are bleeding, and you have 100 texts to reply to, plus 50 receipts to organize.



Last weekend I made almost 100 plates of gumbo, fried fish, mac and cheese, greens, cornbread, and hand pies. My heart was full, my head was pounding, and my stomach was somehow empty. If you have a chef friend (who isn’t me) please ask them if they eat at their own events, I assure you they will most likely say absolutely hell no! There is no time for a chef to eat during their own service unless it is over a trash can between seatings, that’s just how it is.

My new pop up concept is called GUMBO and launched last week in Mexico City. It’s inspired by dishes my grandma taught me how to cook and has been serving me my entire life and even though I barely ate a sliver of cornbread last weekend, my entire body was radiating with joy and gratitude, empty stomach or not.

Here’s a crossword puzzle I made for the pop-up, save it and solve it or else

I had already planned to talk about growth this week, which is funny because when I put that topic on the calendar I had no idea I would be doing a pop up around the same time. To start talking about growth, I have to admit that I left New York three months ago for Mexico City on the verge of a complete and total mental breakdown.


This is the vibe I left New York on 

New York is beautiful and has so much to offer people with strong work ethic and I love it for that, but I found it impossible to recognize my accomplishments at the pace the city required me to work at. I would finish one project that was a huge deal for me and be thrown right into already being behind on two more projects.

My final couple of months in the city I would cry every time someone told me they were proud of me because that was a feeling I hadn’t felt for myself in months. The idea of pride was taboo. I knew some of the events on my calendar would change my career and that people knew I was capable of big shit, but nothing made me feel good.



I cooked for a three night camping trip for Timberland, put together one of the largest grazing tables of my life for a women’s fashion week showroom, and mastered a gluten-free version of my favorite dessert (sticky toffee pudding) for a fully nude dinner party of 30 women.

None of these were small feats and only now as I look back do I realize how much I accomplished. I’m a notorious cryer and I would go home and cry after each event because I was so grateful it was done and I had done a good job. A cocktail of imposter syndrome and running on four hours of sleep was my regular order.

After the nude dinner I got the word grateful tattooed across my chest so I would never forget. Last weekend the day after the pop up I went and got BOSS tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and a Y on the first finger of my other hand to make BOSSY so I never forget who’s in charge around here (photo evidence here).



I have a handful of motivational phrases tattooed this is nothing new

Point is, we don’t recognize our own growth enough. In a social media dominated age where all we do is compare ourselves to each other and events are forgotten as quickly as a swipe, we need to remember to exist in the real world. 

Being in New York made me forget myself, my goals, and my WHY. Stepping out of the city has allowed me to look at myself in the mirror for longer (I quite literally spent an hour super stoned last week brushing my hair in the mirror like I was in a horror movie or something).

Think about what you were doing today last year, who you were with, how you felt about yourself. Odds are you’ve bossed up in one way or another and I bet you $10 your skin is clearer.

Last year today I was a handful of days away from launching my first ever public cooking venture with one of my best friends in Los Angeles, so full of hope and a dozen shopping lists. I maybe went broke for a second in order to execute my culinary dreams, but I in fact did make something super magical.



If you were lucky enough to attend one of the four Marine Security dinners we hosted last year that highlighted seafood and amazing music out of a private LA residence then you know it was a real YOLO vibe.

A year later I’m tying a perfect bow on a box that holds the memories of my first totally solo public culinary experience. A year feels like a century ago. The things I’ve accomplished between now and then are opportunities I never imagined I would be offered.



Life is WEIRD. I guess that’s the final blurb I have for today, that life is super weird and also time is completely not real, and social media shouldn’t be taken seriously, and it’s better to take mental pictures than photos with your phone, and yeah… that’s what’s hot. Next week we’re going to get super silly so make sure you get all your tears about how grateful you are for this little life before then!



*Each and every Monday—unless I’m hungover—you can find my ever-so-eloquent word vomits on this fabulous website for you to peruse, laugh, and take note of. If you love it already and don’t want to miss a beat, drop your email down below for weekly reminders when a new post goes live.*





madeintheurl 2024