Jason Sheehan

Those mass produced plates of food at chain restaurants have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the noisy, steamy, greasy kitchen behind the scenes in Sheehan's Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love, and Death in the Kitchen. We learn that these kitchens are peopled with foul-mouthed, territorial covens with their own caste system. In spite of the R-rated dialogue and a seeming indifference for the world outside the swinging door with the window up top, there's a nobility to this brotherhood. The path from cook to chef is compared to religious training: "Both demand a total commitment beyond common comprehension." Sheehan continues, "Both are full of magic and superstition, peasant hoodoo, damnation, ritual and sacrifice." This culinary world is its own universe with lifecycles and food chains. There's life and death, love and sex, and it all happens in the kitchen. Sheehan is the food writer for the weekly alternative newspaper in Denver, Westword, and winner of the James Beard Award for excellence in that craft in 2003. Bouncing from his native New York to Florida and back again, Sheehan has logged many hours in a kitchen. He later turned to food writing and has been a regular in Best American Food Writing for five years. He lives in Denver.

At the Festival: Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen