How I Work With Alcohol as a Sober Chef

I am sober. I have been sober for nearly 19 years at this point, which is exactly half of my life. I’m also a restaurant chef who specializes in the creation of preserved and fermented foods. This means that on any given day, I’m curing meat, growing koji, mashing cabbage for sauerkraut, and fermenting fruits and grains into alcohol and then making vinegar.

You read that right: I’m a sober chef who makes booze, sometimes copious...