Necessary Luxury – Oji Jaja
Ashebre, Culinary Artist
As a culinary artist there are a few items that are essential to satisfying the needs of my clients. Some of these include a chef’s knife. My preference is the eight-inch hollow blade Santoku knife, made from high-carbon stainless steel.
This knife gives me comfort and precision when preparing some of my more detailed work. Along with my chef’s knife I always have a three-and-a-half inch paring knife, which is normally used for the peeling and carving/sculpting of fruits and vegetables. A steel is also needed; I use it to maintain the edge on the knives and keep them sharp at all times. A sharp knife is a safe knife.
My laptop and BlackBerry work hand in hand as they both help me to keep the communication lines open with my team and clients. My laptop helps me with my research and formulation of menus and recipes. As a culinarian, I need to keep abreast of new trends and developments in the industry — for this my laptop is essential.
My BlackBerry Bold 2 is ideal for me, the phone is sleek and compact, offering me the luxury of receiving, editing and sending documents which are time-sensitive. Oftentimes I am called upon to do events with only a day’s notice, and my BlackBerry is invariably what saves the day. I believe I use it more than any of my other tools. It keeps me in touch with my friends and family both home and away and helps to keep my network strong.
All my menus and recipes are first created with a fine-point ceramic pen and a blank piece of white paper, so my pen is on me at all times. You may ask, why use a fine-point ceramic pen? Fact is it just feels right!