The Spy’s Thanksgiving

One thing I never really thought about when deciding to work in the food service industry is that a good number of restaurants are open on the holidays. Northern Spy Food Co. (or “The Spy” for short) was no exception. I was one of the lucky few to not have to work on the actual day and was able to make a whirlwind, 23-hour trip to Chicago to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my family. However, the majority of my coworkers were not so fortunate. So Friday it was—the day we would have our own Thanksgiving dinner together. One of the sous chefs took on the bulk of the work by preparing the turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, but everyone else contributed delicious dishes as well. In addition, there was chorizo stuffing, macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, buffalo chicken dip (I’d never heard of it before either, but it was delicious!), cheese, crackers, beer, wine, and bourbon. I contributed roasted cauliflower and my dad’s sweet potato pie along with a cinnamon whiskey whipped cream. If you don’t have friends that are chefs (or at least can cook well), then you’re really missing out when it comes to potluck dinner parties. Everything was delicious and we all ate way more than we should—but that’s what Thanksgiving is all about…sort of. The highlight of the evening, as cheesy as it may sound, was passing around a Hello Kitty bouncy ball as we all said what we were thankful for.

“As you may or may not know, I had no intention of working in a restaurant when I enrolled in culinary school. At the advice of others, I caved in and trailed at a restaurant—The Spy. Although it hasn’t always been easy, I’m definitely glad that I did because I’ve grown immensely as a cook and have met a great group of people while doing it.”