On r/kitchenconfidential there's a man posting every day a batch of cut chives until the replies say they are perfect. We are on day 17.
We all hang with bated breath upon chive chef, we live through him in his Sisyphean task to cut a homogeneous batch of chives - a dream of perfection in an unloved and most often unrecognised industry
We all wish we could be chive guy. We see him in ourselves, his straining reflection giving us a foothold to claw back to something so easily lost. Passion in our work.
Truly Icarus failed because he flew too close to the sun, but is it not a masterful achievement to strive for those beauteous and lofty peaks regardless?
I think that chive-chef is showing us that striving for perfection is both doomed to fail, but also admirable in and of itself. I think he shows us a peek into a world where we aren't alienated from our labour. Where we may create with our own two hands, with the tools at our disposal, where we may strive for perfection for the sake of it. For the beauty of creation we may reach for the Sun.
See you tomorrow, chef.