As I sit here watching the 2024 Paris Olympics, witnessing athletes who have committed years, decades, and their lives to their sport, I realize writing (and food, of course) has been my “sport” for the last 22 years. I haven’t trained the muscle, but the memory is returning. In the process, I am consciously pushing out self-doubt and anxiety while my fingers feel like little tin men from “The Wiz” singing “Slide Some Oil to Me” as I’m hunched over this keyboard. Nevertheless, I persist.
What can I say? It’s been three-plus years since I last wrote on this special food page and in this historic Harlem, New York City, publication. During that time, I realized I am an experiential writer, capturing moments and times in words and stories. And I have had lots of moments to share with you.
As the pandemic did for the rest of the world, it changed my trajectory in myriad ways. I got a full-time job as a food editor (and all that goes with going back into a corporate job), served on a food awards committee representing New York State, took on a major culinary producing job, traveled extensively both domestically and internationally, and still cooked privately for my SCHOP! clients. There were also some major disappointments from which I continue to heal.
In an effort to get myself out of my funk, I began to push beyond maintaining my day-to-day existence to create a new momentum in my life. It began in May, when I posted the following on Instagram:
On this day before my birthday I cleaned my stove top…like really cleaned my stove top. It was a stove top caked with grease and cooking debris. It housed a greasy kettle, a cast iron pan I wasn’t using (and couldn’t seem to store?) nesting an uncleaned crank popcornpopper, leaving one burner exposed to use. Just one.
Honestly my stove top looked like how I felt inside, the mental state I find myself pulling out of from this past year: caked down in malaise and self doubt, not working with all my skills and abilities, feeling unable to put things aside that are not serving me, and not being able to clear my mind to see a bigger picture…and my future.
So today I pulled out my rubber gloves, scrubbers, and cleaners, all of my intention and purpose, and meticulously went in until I got to this. It is by no means white glove clean but it has given me the space to walk into my birthday feeling like a new beginning is upon me and I can cook up whatever I am able to imagine…all burners firing.
So I am going to make a salad and stare at my clean stove a couple of more times before I go to bed. #IAmHere”
My post resonated not only with friends offering words of encouragement; it became a reference for writer-friends to say, “She’s still got it!” It also became my personal cornerstone for purging, cleaning, and organizing my apartment of things I falsely let identify me for the last couple of years, and for trusting my decades of “training” to push forward as I am right now, in this moment.
The AmNews FOOD crew and I are ready again to bring you all the goings on in the food space from Harlem, New York City, the United States, and beyond with recipes, reviews, chefs, cooks, restaurants, makers, producers, and more. Please let us know your finds and what you are interested in reading from us.
With this first piece back in the AmNews fold, I am inverting my normal closing salutation, because my gratitude for you is more important than food.
Thank you for reading and happy eating!
Kysha Harris is a chef, food writer and editor, culinary producer, consultant, and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for more than 22 years. Follow her on Instagram @SCHOPnyc and on Facebook at /SCHOPnyc.
If you have questions, comments, requests, feedback, or invitations, email us at AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.