Fine dining as agent of change

I have always had generally blue color leanings politically. It always seemed easy for the right to say you need to pick yourself up by the bootstraps when they generally aren't the ones needing the picking up. I have always been aware of class, have and have nots. The nobility of the worker and work. In kind I still prefer real food, food with an origin, with history. Food that has developed over centuries by out of necessity and context. Peasant food, rustic, call it what you will. I tend to see it as 'real' food. There in I have linked food and politics. Food and my view of the world. Food as substance instead of consumption. Food can represent the work of a culture, the mana of the everyman. So here I am working fine dining. Granted, I work within a traditional cuisine, yet I make food that my parents or family, for most of there lives, couldn't afford. It's a common cooks conundrum. I make food that I myself cannot afford to eat. Hee-larious. It is that sort of reinforcing of the servant class, that so many chefs today bristle against. This desire to be legitimized, to be seen as professionals. It is hard enough for chefs, for cooks it is impossible. So were do I stand as a cook. Am I simply a servant to those who can afford my skills. Paid labor. Or is there something more to this avenue of cuisine? Should I say screw it all and go back to my roots and immerse myself in middle/working class cuisine. What can be had in Fine Dining.
First and foremost it is a pursuit of ego/passion. It is the pursuit, as a craftsman, to put out the best product one can. As well as to hone ones skill as sharply as one can. The best way to do this, as far as I've found, is to produce food that has the highest expectations. The monetary tag associated with a fine dining dish requires skills of the highest order, executed as consistently as possible. While there are certainly skills that cross over several genres of restaurant cookery, fine dining requires the most care overall. There are many restaurants that can produce tasty nutritious food, and don't charge an exorbitant amount, yet they also don't require the same collection of skills. Fine Dining requires the full use of the cooks toolbox. Vegetable cookery, butchery, Charcuterie, Knife skills, etc...While later I may look to apply some of these in more humble settings later, this is the only way for me to use all of them all of the time.
The other aspect of Fine Dining that I have always been attracted to is the ability to educate. Diners respect the source of a fine dining establishments ingredients. It is understood that an upper end restaurant should be using the best possible ingredients at all times, so what are the best possible ingredients and why are they (the fine dining establishment) using them? While the celebrity chef has taken food into the realm of entertainment, local restaurants can still educate and influence diners. Emeril, and Bobby may spout generalities about 'good' cooking, but local restaurant can actually educate diners about good ingredients. They can actually experience why they are good. I'm lucky to be working at a restaurant where almost 80% of raw product comes from within 100 miles from the restaurant. I'm also lucky to be working in a city where that is the norm, not the exception. However there is still so far to go. When diners realize that local products, directly reflecting a seasonal diet, are superior to mass produced products we can start re-thinking the way we buy and sell food. The awareness of organic produce and beef has already begun a consumer swing. People are thinking about what they consume. I believe this is in part due to fine dining. Fine dining restaurants in an attempt to provide it's customers with the best product have realized that by going local they are receiving fresher, riper, diverse product at a relatively reasonable price. The whole process of a diner discovering something delicious and wondering why the same thing at the store sucks, is an indirect education. "That tomato was amazing. Where did it come from, and where can I buy them?". Sure it isn't answering the big questions of feeding and housing the homeless, but it is eliciting thought. Providing an alternative way to look at food. Or at least a point of discussion. Why do these Chefs choose this food, and why can't I have access to the same? Why is the produce at my grocery store dominated by shipped in, unripe, tasteless vegetables? Fine dining won't supply solutions either, that needs to be determined by the consumers ability to create a demand.

I am an impatient Sort

This whole process of learning to cook, learning about food is ceaseless. Just when you master a skill, or feel at least competent, then the door to something else is opened. This trip can only be truly measured by looking back at what I've done. Where I started, and where I am. Am I content? No. Do I regret, or believe I have let myself down? No. I am anxious. Anxious to know everything I can, yet become frustrated when I do something that doesn't involve moving forward. Watching a movie, playing a video game, taking a nap. Knowing there is so much ahead fills me with anticipation and guilt when I am not fully applied to food. This is also what keeps me going. There is more. There is no room to be lazy, or content. I am not competent enough, yet. There are more challenges. There will always be challenges. I am still impatient. I am still not content, yet I am still so damn excited. I think I really do enjoy knowing that food will always be a slightly elusive mistress. I will never get bored with it. I will becom more familiar yet there will still be surprises.
This is why, I think, I've chosen the fine dining route. There is always a higher standard that one can hold themselves to. The product can always be a step closer to perfection. Things can always be more consistent. Of course, I expect, this will temper with experience. Once I'm done trying and testing myself I will settle in. I will find my particular voice within food. Maybe a pub. Maybe a tiny bistro, or a B&B. Maybe it'll be some shrimp shack in the Keys. That's the beauty of it all. It still hasn't played out. The food still hasn't given up all it's secrets, and what I can do with the knowledge is still unfolding.