All Hail the Pastry Pirate!

One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, formerly known as The Empress and a long-time resident of the "the internets," has now joined the blogosphere as The Pastry Pirate. This is good news indeed, because she is a hilarious and excellent writer. It’s also good news because she's writing a chronicle of her experiences in cooking school, which I find utterly fascinating because it's simultaneously foreign and familiar to me (school I know -- cooking, not so much). But it's the unique take the Pastry Pirate has that makes her blog truly distinctive. Here's a sample from a recent post on the uniforms the students must wear:

Everything from the snap-waist baggy pants to the slip on clogs and loose jacket is designed to come off quickly for when you catch on fire.

How awesome is it to wear a uniform with the presumption of peril? Designed for when, not if, but when you catch on fire?? It made me think of the Mongol horsemen who wore silk shirts under their armor, not to be sexy (although...), but because the silk fibers wrapped and twisted around arrows on the way in, and actually made it easier to remove them by twisting the shaft in the opposite direction on the way out.

Okay, so maybe it's not a direct comparison, but then, most things remind me of Mongols or Vikings or random pirates in some way.

Only the Pastry Pirate would compare chefs' clothing to the clothing of Mongol horsemen.Ya gotta go read more, especially the posts about "Foie Girl." Oh, and get this: someone she knows said her posts were too long! Bwahahahaha! Apparently said person has never read an academic blog. Or any literate, interesting blog, for that matter, among which the Pastry Pirate most definitely counts. So go welcome her, add her to your Bloglines subscriptions, and prepare to be fascinated.