“I’m going to have a restaurant, and you’re going to like it,” Ash told me one night at bedtime a few months ago. I do not know what sparked his culinary interest, but since he was 3 or 4, Ash has been saying he wants to be a chef when he grows up. He has also been my sous-chef in our kitchen since that time, always wanting to help cook. A couple of years ago, a debate was circulating on social media about whether buying little boys’ kitchen sets was appropriate. And I wanted to do a dedicated blog post about it because I had purchased Ash, a large modern wooden kitchen playset from Crate and Barrel, for Christmas. Granted, I could tell he preferred standing next to me in the kitchen cooking actual food, but he also spent a fair amount of time pretending to cook up my request with his play food in that wooden kitchen. And if you are a faithful reader of my blog, you can recall me mentioning sometime last year that my mom had even had Ash a chef hat and apron monogrammed “Chef Ash.”
I’ve been quite impressed at how he regularly lays out this life’s blueprint. In that same bedtime conversation a few months ago, he explained that he would have a blue drop-top BMW that he is “always going to park at the front of the door (of his restaurant).” He told me his menu would have “french fries, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, and pizza.” And “there will also be breakfast there with five things—bacon, waffles, pancakes, eggs, and grits.” And he thoughtfully added, “I will do crunchy bacon and soft bacon.”
“There will be a little carpet for you to dry your boots. …I think I’m going to have two restaurants. It’s going to start at 4:30. Breakfast will start at 2:20. Breakfast will be served on the second level, and there will be an elevator in case you don’t want to do the stairs. …But I still don’t know what to do the name, though. I hope everyone is not going to be bored. You’ll see me with black pants, and I’m going to have a white shirt. It’s going to be over at 10:01. You will love this restaurant. It will be like Target.” End quote, Asher B. Mitchell, 2023, age six. In twenty-five years or so, when my baby is driving his drop-top beamer as one of the top chefs in the world, I will remember his six-year-old declaration.
Saying his restaurant will be like Target—I know he will be a success! My continued contribution to his dreams was signing him up for the kids’ summer cooking classes at Sur La Table. Last week was his first five-day series (the culinary excursion series), where he came home beaming about making homemade pasta for spaghetti with a machine “that made the dough flat and into noodles” and rolling his meatballs from scratch. He also made homemade biscuits, tacos, pizza, and ice cream. And so I think he will be a master at his future restaurant’s menu!
Remember in 2020 when I wrote about how Ash became obsessed with Dinosaurs? The Hot Wheels craze has waned. It is now entirely all about dinosaurs. Today, he bargained with me at Target—he would do a certain amount of work and reading if I bought the Jurassic World Indorapter toy to add to his dinosaur collection.
When I transitioned and upgraded his room years ago from baby furniture, a light gray color scheme themed with elephants, to little boy furniture, a navy blue color scheme themed with dinosaurs, I had no idea his dinosaur mania would be as grand as it is now!
And in a couple of months, he will be my little second-grader. Where does the time go?
I feel like I will blink my eyes, and he will be all grown up, calling me on the phone (at 10: 02 pm) as he is locking up (his restaurant) for the night, headed home in his blue car.
