[Dragaera] Unstoppable Force vs Immovable Object

[John Dallman]

In article <454928D6.3010409 at comcast.net>, lincicum at comcast.net (Jon 
Lincicum) wrote:

> I'd say it's far more likely she just gets "Mr. Valabar" (and some 
> of his staff) to show up and cook her a meal in the Imperial kitchens
> from time to time. After all, I bet the palace's cooking facilities 
> are just as good (if not better than) Valabar's.

I dunno. Have you ever tried doing serious cooking in someone else's 
kitchen? How you have it arranged and your knowledge of the exact 
behaviour of the equipment (particularly the stove) are really important. 

It's something that cooks "inherit" through learning in each other's 
kitchens. I learned to cook from my mother, who learned from her mother. 
I found my grandmother's kitchen almost unusable, because I couldn't 
find anything, while my other could drive it easily, and could drive 
mine fairly well because it resembles hers, without resembling 
grandmother's very much at all. 

Now, the Valabar family have been working in the same kitchen, learning 
from each other and optimising the kitchen for the Valabar style, for 
many generations. Their bond with its facilities and layout will be 
quite extraordinary. Trying to go somewhere else and cook the same would 
be quite hard. Sure, someone who left and went to work elsewhere would 
adapt over a period of a few weeks - and would be skilful enough that 
even their less-than-perfect work with unfamiliar facilities would be 
very good. 

But trying to /be/ Valabar's in the Imperial Palace would be harder than 
it sounds. 

--- 
John Dallman, jgd at cix.co.uk, HTML mail is treated as probable spam.