Sam Tarr: Journalist, Writer, Cook
Based in Bridgewater, MA but get around.
B.S. Journalism: Emerson College ’20
A.A. Liberal Arts: Massasoit Community College ’17
Former Editor-In-Chief of the dearly departed Massasoit Tribune
15-Year Culinary Professional: high tolerance for misery, cool under pressure
“Find what you love and let it kill you.”
-Charles Bukowski
For all inquiries, drop me a line using the form below:
It’s almost Tuesday, I reminded myself as I stared into the large double handled sauterne. Smoke rose from the steel as I dropped the block of butter into the center. It sizzled and smoked as I threw in the onions, celery, and carrots for the wild mushroom risotto.
Usually, the unrelenting pace of managing a professional kitchen helped fend off life’s more troubling existential questions, but there I was, pondering the value of decade in the culinary world. I swirled the risotto base around as I thought about how I got there. Just then, a wave of butter broke over the side of the pan, landing right on the back of my left hand. I winced, with more disgust than pain, and stared up at the greasy white ceiling tiles. Just then, Paco, a 60-year-old El Salvadorian dishwasher popped around the corner.
“Sam-welllll!” he said, holding up 5 fingers. I replied with a smile and acknowledged there were only five hours left in another gruesome Sunday double. “So betta, man,” he said and slid back around the corner. It was then I decided to quit.
Maybe I’d go back to school, I thought, for what I had no idea. I spent the summer traveling and planning my next move. I reread Hunter Thompson’s The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, and I thought about my life up until that point, how I rejected the notion of becoming a writer early on as I settled into the cooking world. My mind had already started drifting towards practicality and prospective jobs as I signed up for the spring semester at Massasoit Community College, in Brockton MA.
I took a journalism class and began writing for the Massasoit Tribune, the school’s online paper. After much hesitation I decided to follow my passion for writing, ignoring the negative nagging voice in my mind. I went on to become Editor-In-Chief, covering the school’s theater department, the 2016 election, an acupuncture program to alleviate opioid withdrawals, and other stories supplying content for each weekly deadline.
I took my first creative writing class, and with encouragement from my professors, applied and got into the journalism program at Emerson College, where I earned a BS as part of the class of 2020, with a minor in writing. I live in Bridgwater, MA, cook in Brockton, and am continuing to work on my various non-fiction essays and memoirs as I pursue a career as a journalist and writer.
Here, I have compiled a large selection of my journalistic writing from when I returned to school at the beginning of 2016. Thanks for checking it out, make sure you follow to stay up to date with new content as it becomes available. Rock on.
Sam Tarr Writer .com 