We were seated at this amazing event last night, a top chef challenge. It wasn't advertised but Chef Tyler with Cleaver's is working with Abigail Elliott on the upcoming Masquerade ball, so he asked if we would like to join.
Are you kidding? Come and taste the delectable talents of the finest chefs around, with cuisine from all over the world? I even took off my cowboy boots and put on some dress shoes for this one, but my son told me that no matter what I do, I still look like a cowboy. ;)
So we got to be seated at a table of chefs, one of which was McKenna Geringer, and out of the blue, she asks if we used to take our son to a daycare out in the country, which we did for just a short time about 20 years ago. Our photography had become so busy that we were pulling 90-hour workweeks, and it was one of the driving factors for us to build a studio with our home attached, so we could keep our kids with us instead of always finding childcare.
Well, it turns out Mckenna went to that same little countryside daycare with our son, Logan! They played together almost every day as little tots! What are the odds? Now here she is, all grown up, and she’s this rising star, in her final year of culinary school. Together with Chris Weber, they created the best Cream Puff I’ve ever tasted in my life! They were having trouble with melting the caramel on top of the puff without warming and melting the cream inside, so Mckenna came up with this outstanding idea of powdering the caramel first so they could torch it to perfection, all while keeping the cream nice and cool inside. Genius!
“I think - didn’t you even take our family pictures?” She asked. Then she showed us a picture on her phone, which my entire family immediately recognized as my work,
“Yep, that’s a Dan Elliott photo.” They said.
Well, that was it, the game was afoot!
Every now and then someone reminds me of a session from the early years, and it starts bugging me to no end. Until I find that session in my records, I just can’t rest.
I have dozens and dozens of old hard drives, filled with old photo sessions, and so off I went to track them down. Sure enough, I found McKenna and her family, from clear back in October of 2005!
I was happy to find those shots, but also a little sad because my camera (and probably my skills) just weren’t as tack sharp 17 years ago vs what I would consider acceptable today. Still, I was left in awe just thinking of the odds. I think there were maybe 6-8 kids at Marlys Storm’s country daycare at that time, and here two of them were sitting at the same table by chance, all these years later, enjoying the craftsmanship of a soon-to-be award-winning chef. :)
