Engineering a Good Time with The Culinary Philosopher
“Take the dough and thread it through the pasta maker. Keep doing that until it’s flat and the consistency is like this.” The veteran chef stretches the green dough pancake thin. My friends and I are gathered around a large marble countertop as Craig Croteau guides us through the inner workings of his pasta machine. Craig is a master of many things, but cooking seems to be one of his most proficient crafts. He effortlessly weaves raw ingredients into delectable feasts with an unmatched level of prowess, feeding twenty starving teenagers without batting an eye.
A month later, I walk through the gaping open door of a military hangar converted into a bustling brewery. The air in Fort Point’s factory is thick with dense billows of steam and the smell of yeast and hops permeates through everything. Bad Moon Rising is blasting on the speakers, complemented by a rhythmic chorus of the supply line. Craig’s office is in the back, and as I walk in the door, he welcomes me with a firm handshake.
Throughout our interview, I was in awe of Craig’s kindness, wisdom, and zen-like psyche. To this day he stays true to his small-town roots, and he remarks that his childhood grounds him, “What I gained in Vermont made me who I am today. I’m very interested in people, and I’m very interested in food and gatherings and social environments.” From a young age, Craig has always been passionate about intimate connections and fostering social gatherings, which has shaped him into who he is today.
Craig is a creative person with the mind of a scientist and the physical technique of a craftsman. His technical brain and proficiency with machinery helped him land a position as a mechanical engineer out of college. “I’ve always been interested in and quite adept at problem-solving, fixing things. Actually physically fixing things. So I was always repairing bikes, [mowing] the lawn, whatever it may be, the chainsaw [for example]. I could take things apart and fix them.” Craig switched bikes and chainsaws for circuit boards and hard drives and earned a job in the rampant tech industry.
However, after years of working as an engineer, Craig found himself exhausted by the cutthroat culture of the industry, and his desire for a more inclusive workspace ultimately repelled him from a corporate occupation. “You’re part of a cog in a big wheel that is infinitely replaceable.” Craig’s roots in close-knit communities were the deciding factor in his career change, “My personality lends a little bit more to building long term relationships and growing on them. Basic things of trust, loyalty, honesty, and those types of factors.”
Luckily, Craig found a new booming industry: microbrewing. He had already been freelance brewing on his own for many years, and a company called Fort Point had caught his eye. Fortunately, the factory was right down the street from his house, “I went down and knocked on the door to see if I could follow up on [the job offer] and see what it was like from the inside out to create beer.” Once again, Craig would employ his craftsmanship, but this time in a friendlier environment.
By entering the microbrewing industry at a late age, Craig took an unconventional jump into the unknown, restarting on the first rung of a different corporate ladder “ [In] the beer industry you start at the bottom. Immediately they gave [me] some steel-toed boots and the proper attire. And I went into work on the packaging line at 6:00 a.m. in the morning.” A return to minimum wage employment and judgment from his younger peers (in fact one asked if he had a prison record) were steep mountains to climb, but nonetheless Craig persisted.
Almost one year later, Craig is entirely certain he made the right decision, “It’s very exciting for me. I don’t ever say ‘oh I should’ve done this 20 years ago’ instead of the other things that I’ve done.” His mindset towards brewing is emblematic of his philosophy in life; to focus on what the future holds and to not get bogged down in the past. “I don’t worry much about goodbyes, I always just think there’ll be another hello and I meet up with people I’ve met before and I don’t worry about all the little things. I just take it from [here] and keep moving forward.”
For Craig, moving forward also means dedicating himself to improving his surroundings a bit every day, supporting the surrounding communities, and committing to being a positive presence. “I’m continually repairing things, leaving them better than I found them. [It’s] trying to have good interactions with everybody that I meet and leave them thinking more positive than when we met.” Clearly, Craig’s unselfishness and benevolence are cornerstones of his life. He lives life socially and technically, feeding his passion like he feeds an entire room full of people with exceptional ravioli.
When asked if he had any final comments, Craig left me with a piece of crucial wisdom. While Craig is lucky enough to have encountered his calling in life, he warned me against spending too much time searching for absolute meaning: “Sometimes you have to put your passion on the side. You keep it simmering [and] bring it back to life, but it doesn’t all have to be about passion all the time. There’s also reality.”
His sentiment couldn’t have resonated with me more.
