I am 26 years old, and I am ancient. Apparently, I never did what I was supposed to with my youth, although I didn't realize it at the time. That's because I, like many, made the mistake of thinking I was young without realizing how fast I was growing up.
And watching videos like the one below – the one by the New York Times and their incredibly improving stable of video journalists – thins my hair and wrinkles my belly a little more.
Flynn McGarry is a 15-year-old all-star chef, a prodigy who already sells plates for $160, and he does it right in his own living room – in a "restaurant" he calls Eureka. As the Times points out, McGarry also interns at a high-end restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, where he lives. His bookshelf is filled with cookbooks – like the noticeable NOMA one – and the kid says things like, "It's a weird contradiction of, I want to learn as much as possible but I don't wanna wait too long."
Lines like that will send shivers down the spine of already-working head chefs, who probably just want a line cook to keep his head down and say "YES, CHEF" whenever possible. (Imagine if Anthony Bourdain or Marco Pierre-White still ran a kitchen? Would they hate even more the 'celebrity chef' persona they let everyone else envy?)
But McGarry wants to open his own restaurant by 19. And, with that Mozart-ish soundtrack in the background of the Times's video, it sounds like four years is plenty of time. For this kid, at least.