Wild kitchen haute cuisine?
Since I was a little boy I was obsessed with cooking using unusual herbs in the kitchen. Unusual in the sense that I used spices not common in the Belgian kitchen. So when my mum bought a little red pepper plant - merely as decoration - I added the peppers to the soup. Which became promptly inedible for Belgian taste.
Needless to say that my kitchen adventures were not really encouraged.
Later on cooking adventures in the chemistry classes replaced chemical experiments. End up outside the classroom when the teacher discovers that I'm using the dry oven to make a "croque monsieur"!
Why did I study chemistry?
My parents watched me brewing all kinds of potions to get rid of the naughty flies and the stench that my butcher-neighbour produced by trowing the rests of his meat products in his garden. As the gardens were open I impressed the girl next door with my magic herbal potions that would destroy the flies and rats that were in abundance attracted to the decaying meat. Forgot if that helped at all! Nevertheless, my parents gave a chemistry box to experiment with. Still grateful to my parents as it aroused my interest in all kinds of chemical and magical phenomena.
Later on studied science and specialised in chemistry for the simple reason that once you understood how it worked, you didn't need to study. We had a great teacher, showing us the latest scientific insights in chemistry on an atomic level.
So thankful for her teaching and understanding on sub-atomic level. One had to think very abstract to see the moving of positive energy to the negative demanding side.
Sweden
After school I start to work for more that a year in a nuclear plant - a very underpaid job - 7 days a week, no pause. There's always another side to everything. The good side is that I manage to smuggle a violin inside, and exercise my musical skills.
Then instead of using my chemistry degree I decide to accept all kind of jobs, from carpentry to errand boy for a publishing company. Fun and relaxing. Then comes the call to fulfil the draft. Despite me being asthmatic the military doctor - without any medical examination - finds me in perfect condition to be part of the army. All my colleagues in the military hospital - mostly lawyers - are dismissed. The give me a business card and tell me that they earn the money they pay to the doctor is earned in one month back. A good investment.
When I arrive at the military barracks, the officers do not treat me so friendly and polite. Bummer. I decide to call it a day and after causing tumult in the dining room I jump over the fence.
Bye bye corruption, time to move on. Ended up in Sweden making muesli and selling chapatis at music festivals.
Twenty years later, Walters starts an off-grid restaurant in the Casamance, Senegal. Together with Yande, his then Senegalese vwife.
The relation didn't last so exit to Belgium and start again from scratch.
Next episode will reveal what happens then...