The Master Craftsman

• February 15th, 2010
• Pictures
• 3 Comments ;

Making homemade candles from powdered walrus tusk isn’t the only thing that my friend Orion excels at, he’s also pretty darn good at making a Whynatte. To see him in action is to observe a master craftsman at work. From his laser-like focus, to his unrelenting attention to detail, Orion treats Whynatte preparation like a Swiss watchmaker.

The result? Well, you’d have to actually try one of Orion’s handcrafted Whynattes to taste the difference, but I can assure you that he didn’t get his esteemed reputation without being one of the best in the world.

Orion wasn’t always the Whynatte craftsman that you see here today. In fact, he started off as one of the more rudimentary baristas that I’ve ever seen enter the trade. His form was pedestrian, and the froth of his milk was sloppier than the mouth of a hunting hyena. He was like a large chunk of uncarved granite, but over the years the slab has been transformed into a sparkly talking pony.

What you don’t see in these photos are the years of training that went into making him what he is today. Like an Olympic athlete who trains for years, waking up at dawn to fine tune even the smallest detail, Orion too spent years waking up at dawn on random people’s sofas, and going to work in the same clothes he’d slept in:

With his reputation for making world class Whynattes come the perks of success. Most notably, hot chicks. Groupies, if you will. The tank-topped slice of brisket that you see in the photo below is just one of the many examples of the kind of roast that Orion now enjoys on a nightly basis: