#12 – Rabbit Killer talks about his food blog, finance, and waiting at super-fancy spots

Rabbit Killer (it will make sense later) comes from Alaska, is a bean counter by day, and a fine diner by night.  He’s played violin at the highest levels (see below) and served the rich and famous pinot grigio.

Premise Guy: You have a blog The Budget College Cook. How did you get into blogging about cooking, and haven’t you been out of college for a while now?

Rabbit Killer: well, I got into blogging because I was in college and was bored, classes weren’t all that challenging. And I live in San Francisco EVERYONE has a blog out here. So I figured why not? And I’ve only been out of college for a year now. I originally dropped out of college when I was 21, but reenrolled when I was 24.

Premise Guy: Ahhhh, I see.

Rabbit Killer: It took me an additional 4 years to get my degree because I switched from violin performance to finance – disparate majors so no classes transferred.

Premise Guy: Sounds like a major life crisis/realization. What’s it like to completely switch directions like that?

Rabbit Killer: Not as bad as you’d think. I quit music for multiple reasons: I kinda wanted to stick it to my parents, I was worried about my financial future if I stuck with music, and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. The endless practicing and all of that kinda got to me. But between studying music and finance, I spent 2 years working in a restaurant in Chicago. I love food and talking about food so those years were great. It certainly didn’t hurt that I was living with 4 20-something college students and we partied ALOT. When I reenrolled, I did the practical thing and decided to major in something which would lead to a job.

Premise Guy: Kind of like the movie Waiting…or a little more classy?

Rabbit Killer: hahahaha. No, my waiting job was classy – I served a lot of rich white folks. One woman had the gall to straight ask me, “So what are you really…a student or an artist?” That kinda pissed me off.

Premise Guy: Haha. But you were in familiar company, right? Fellow idlers, people “waiting” for the next thing, etc.?

Rabbit Killer: Half and half, I worked with a number of career waiters. They were interesting people with interesting stories. One was highly educated: University of Chicago and Yale. But he loved waiting on people, so that’s what he did even though he could’ve done lots of other things with his life.

But there were other people in my boat: a few students and a few just out of school. But all of us loved food – that was the common denominator.

Premise Guy: So did you eat better then-as a waiter-or now, as a finance whiz?

Rabbit Killer: Then, easily. Let me tell you something: when you work in the upscale restaurant industry and you go to a sister restaurant, they’re gonna take care of you. In a BIG way. So I would show up at a place like Charlie Trotters and, instead of the regular 7 course menu, I would have 15 courses and wine to match.

Premise Guy: God lordie.

Rabbit Killer: It’s just an industry thing…we take care of our own. And I also ate out a lot more back then for a number of reasons. Mostly I didn’t care about saving money…spend, spend, spend was my mantra. I considered it research to eat out, you know, see what other restaurants are doing and how they provide great service. I even tried to figure out if i could use it as a tax writeoff!

Premise Guy: haha

Rabbit Killer: Some of the meals I ate were insane. Absolutely nuts. I collect menus and it’s crazy to go through them and relive some of these meals.

Premise Guy: Most extravagant dish?

Rabbit Killer: Mmmm, you could really go a lot of directions with that. By extravagant, we could look at a dish with the most “luxury” ingredients (think caviar, lobster, foie gras etc.) or we could look at it from a perspective of man hours worked to create the dish. Maybe we could look at a dish with the rarest ingredients? I’m sure there are a few angles I’m not remembering but I had a hell of a foie gras dish at Trio when Achatz was cooking there. Same meal, I had an incredible fish dish…one of my all time favorites: Arctic Char with grapefruit cells, black truffles and endive marmalade.Frigging fantastic. I’ve also had some pretty pristine fish and caviar dishes at Manresa in the South Bay…sigh, I could talk about food all day long.

Premise Guy: Obv.

Rabbit Killer:: But I do consider myself lucky in that I’m 29 but have already switched careers a few times…it’s been fun.

Premise Guy: So this latest career is finance?

Rabbit Killer: yah, corp finance. I’m not a balla I-Banker. I guess I was pretty thrilled to get a job right out of college, but turns out it’s not for me. It’s not a good fit in that I find the work that I do pretty pointless. I don’t give a shit if I sign off on a form or any of that sorta stuff. At the end of the day, it’s much more important for me to know that I’ve touched someone – that’s NOT meant sexually, lol.

Premise Guy: What do you despise the most?

Rabbit Killer: hmm, probably the feeling at the end of the day when I look back at what I’ve done and realize that none of it really matters to me and knowing that I’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow.

Premise Guy: Ha. Been there. How do you get through the day? Is it at least busy like I-banking or are you forced to fantasize about foi-gras for hours on end?

Rabbit Killer: oh god no…i hope my bosses don’t ever read this…but I literally work about 2 hours per day and I manage to get all of my shit done. Whenever they ask me about my workload, I just say, yah, it’s about right. I read alot about food all day…assorted blogs, food forums etc. I also love the freakonomics blog on NYTImes.com. It’s the internet…there’s ALWAYS something to read or do.

Premise Guy: God bless those tubes.

Rabbit Killer: srsly!1

Premise Guy: So, the obvious question then: When are you getting back in the food service industry?

Rabbit Killer: No idea.

I don’t really know if I wanna get back into waiting, per se. The backwards lifestyle and all of that sorta takes its toll I would love to find a niche as a food educator/teacher. I like working with people and teaching (teaching the violin was one of my favorite parts of beingg a musician). So maybe I’ll find something where I get to teach noobs how to cook…I would LOVE a job like that.

Premise Guy: Culinary schools could definitely use your experience. And with your experiencing blogging about food…how many hits do you get on that anyway?

Rabbit Killer: back when I was posting I would get around 40-50 hits per day…I had some huge spikes.

Premise Guy: So why give it up?

Rabbit Killer: I’ve not given it up entirely. I just don’t want to take the time to put up posts and all of that but I’m seriously thinking about starting it up again. I like sharing and getting comments from my readers…even if they ARE full of vitriol. Such as when I posted my video post on how to break down a rabbit carcass.

Premise Guy: Wait…what?

Rabbit Killer: hmmm?

Premise Guy: Like, PETA attacked you on your blog?

Rabbit Killer: no, just random people calling me a murderer

Premise Guy: haha

Rabbit Killer: I told them that the damn rabbit was already dead! I just happened to take him home from the butcher. I think I did a pretty good job of researching rabbits and learning about them and teaching people about them. It was the first time I’ve ever worked with a rabbit.

Premise Guy: I don’t remember seeing the comments…

Rabbit Killer: “because that asshole is distrubed”

Premise Guy: “aaa!!!!!!you eat the cute bunny!!!!you killler!!!!!blhaa ” bahaha!

Rabbit Killer: you’re sick. Why the fuck do you think this is funny?

Premise Guy: Haha. Ok, one last thing: Being from Alaska, is their a food you associate with it or really love? Crab legs, elk, polar bear etc.?

Rabbit Killer: love that seal blubber, can’t get enough of that shit. Seriously, I love king crab legs, can’t get enough of those things. And freshly caught wild salmon filets are magical. We used to go fishing down in Valdez and Mom would gut and scale the fish right on teh ocean’s edge and then wrap teh fish in tin foil pouches with salt and pepper, garlic and a bit of lemon. Throw it next to the campfire and 5-7 minutes later: incredible. That’s probably one of the greatest food memories I have…that incredible intersection of perfect food and perfect place. The kind of food I wouldn’t mind eating for the rest of my life.

Premise Guy: You should really get blogging about food again.

Be sure to check  out the The Budget College Cook