In my very own, private opinion, cooking professionally is really a man's job. Don't get me wrong, I can't live without it. Its the high of the pressure, the crying over the fragrance of spices, an orgasm after tasting just made sauce....But cooking on a line is really a man's job.
  When I first started working on a line my vocabulary experienced significant shrinkage (just like George from Seinfeld), and suddenly I was "fucking" a lot ~ Fucking this/that, shit, fuck, shit again, what the fuck? fucking piece of shit... you get the idea?! But mostly "Fuck". The word Fuck was used a lot. By all of us. I was lucky to work with cooks from different countries, so depending on the kitchen you could hear "fuck" in more than 5 languages at the same time!! And it used to express a lot of emotions. You would never hear:
~"My dear colleague! Unfortunately, I just burnt that sauce you asked me to look after, therefore,  I am going to make another batch for you. And even though you need it right away, I can not to anything about it. Let me get on that sauce right away."
~ "You definitely inconvenienced me, dear colleague, but its OK. Why don't you get to that sauce right away."
Instead, you will hear :
~ "Shit!! Really?!? WTF, Maria? Fuuuuck!"
~ "Fuck, man!! I am so fucking sorry! Shit, I'm fixing it. Fuck! fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Working on the line IS tough. At the beginning of my time in every kitchen, as a woman - 5'1 short, I was often looked down at, literally of course, but also looked down at by the men who were working the lines. I think before I built up my resume as a cook, Executive Chefs would hire me out of curiosity.. Every kitchen I worked at, I were the only girl working the line. There were pastry chefs, but I were the only one next to big snappy guys, working just like them.
I was screamed at, thrown pots at, and some of my finished dishes were sent flying (by the Chef) in to a garbage can. Men like when a woman can take a beating, and the only way I earned respect from those big snappy guys was by not saying a word back, working hard and not crying. Oh, I was CRYING, only when no one saw ~ on my way home. One time I threw a towel at one chef for screaming at me for no apparent reason. He wasn't mad at me, it was stress screaming, but the only way to prevent him from screaming his stress out at me in the future was to throw a towel I was holding right in his face and storm out of the kitchen. He and I were on very professional terms up until that point. But when I came back in to the kitchen 5 minutes later, we were best friends. No moral here, just sharing.

 Professional kitchen is crazy. As a customer, you would think that a beautiful presentation of a perfectly cooked steak just peacefully appeared on your table.. , or you might complaint that food is taking too long. IT'S A WAR ZONE there, people! Restaurants that care about their food, reputation and their customers put a lot of effort in making sure that that steak of yours is of the perfect temperature. And if a cook fucked it up and has to start all over again, oh, boy.. pots are flying, dishes are being broken, and lots of "fucking"...

 So you would understand why I, seemingly normal person prior to the beginning of my working as a Line Cook, went cuckoo one day. And I mean free ambulance ride to a hospital kind of cuckoo. Unfortunately, I already had a bit of cuckoo in me to begin with, but failing a "scallion test" at Momofuku Restaurant sent me over the top... panic and anxiety disorder.
  Working in a professional kitchen IS though. Being a chef IS tough. A lot of us are alcoholics and complete nuts, because there is a lot of stress in the kitchen, day after day ~ every single day.. and most can not cope with the level of pressure in a healthy way. One has to be very strong not to go down a slippery road of an every day "night cap" after work. And some of us do it a lot.. which might lead to depressions.
  Depressions and recipes have a lot in common. Both involve a number of different ingredients ~  it's not just the onions that make an onion soup, and while one major or minor event may set off a depression, a number of factors usually "flavor" the mood. So when a depression should be treated professionally? The answer is ~ when we can longer treat It ourselves. Just like when we take it for granted that the food should be delivered to our table in a timely manner and cooked to perfection, we take it for granted that we are "supposed" to wake up on the right side of the bed every morning. It's a nice idea, but things don't work that way.
  In looking over different areas of your life, look long and hard at your diet. What you eat most definitely affects your mood. Learn to curb the excess fat in your diet. Cut down on butter. Minimize your sugar intake. And when you choose your dinner for cooking, think about how it can be cooked in the most healthy way. Broiling hamburgers rather then frying them, helps to cook out some of the animal fat instead of soaking it in. Use common sense to get as much animal fat out of your system as possible. Fish is low in fat, and rich in minerals and nutrients. Some of us could and should eat a lot more of it, and learning how to cook fish is not that big of a challenge if you set your mind to it.
 When I was diagnosed with panic disorder and mild depression, I was really against going on meds. I loath the fact that my mood is dependent on those tiny and expensive pills, and god forbid I forget to take them, my mind does things I cant even tell you about.... So I went to a psychopharmacologist who shares my anti-meds view. He actually "prescribed" me a fish diet and fish oil intake at least three times a week. We are what we eat. It's a secret, but in reality some humans are fish ~ we came from water to water we shall return.

1. Pour 5 cups of water in to a pot, add dried mushrooms, 1/2 bay leaf and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes ~ while you are doing everything else.

2. In a food processor, blend the heck out of 5 cups cubed mushrooms, 1 tablespoon lemon juice ( or one lemon, squeezed), and 2 garlic cloves. Blend until the mixtures becomes a consistency of a smoothie, add some stock from step 1, little water, or rice milk to make it silkier, but not watery.
Transfer to a cooking pot, bring to a boil, immediately reduce the heat and let simmer. Stir occasionally.

3. FIRST!! heat a sauce pan until smoking hot! then... add 6 tablespoons olive oil, almost immediately throw in all of the following, at the same time is even better! -1/2 cup minced shallots, 1/2 cup diced carrots, and 1 cup sliced mushrooms. Stir a few time so that the ingredients don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Keep stirring until carrots are golden and mushrooms are golden brown. Add 1 tablespoon tomato paste. Don't burn the shallots! And even if you do a little ~ its Ok... it'll give the soup a smoky flavor! Stir until tomato paste starts sizzling. Turn off the heat.  Transfer to the pot where blended mushrooms are simmering away.. (step number 2). Stir.

4. Taste. Add 1 tablespoon of Sherry. Adjust the seasoning. Dilute as much as you like, and to the point of your idea of the perfect thickness with the mushroom stock you made in step 1.

5. Sprinkle with dill and parsley.
Enjoy!

P.S.: You can use the leftover mushroom stock as a base for soups; you can cook rice or pasta in it! You can even make a cold drink out of it ~ stay tuned for that recipe:)