Mike Babcock glares at the list in his hand. He would change some of the items if he could but the list is not his to make. Mike was given this list as part of his job and he has to get it done no matter what. Knowing this doesn’t get Mike out of his truck any faster and it doesn’t take the words ‘gravy mix’ off the grocery list in his hands.

As the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mike has learned to manage his expectations. That doesn’t make powdered gravy any more palatable conceptually. Mike is an unrepentant gravy snob. There is no better companion to a plate of mashed root vegetables and meat than a good thick gravy, brown or white doesn’t matter. The only pertinent quality that informs any judgement of a gravy is its authenticity.

Every Babcock child knows when a gravy has been rushed. Growing up Mike never even knew there was such a thing as gravy packets. Once Mike’s grandfather insinuated that the Christmas gravy was leftover from thanksgiving. The family was only now, decades later, beginning to mend the fences from that sad night.

Mikes own gravy making experience has been a path filled with early experimentation followed by consistent saucy triumph. Mike prizes consistency above a great many other things. So you got lucky and managed to squeak out a decent gravy for dinner. Do it again the next night. Do it for lunch, hell, throw out a breakfast gravy once in a while. Do it right every time, that is the Babcock way.

Anyone can put together an appetizer. The main course takes effort but even without a great deal of talent a person can come up with a filling main and a side of steamed or mashed vegetables. But it will only ever be food on a plate without a good sauce, and gravy is the best of sauces. Good gravy turns food into a meal and a meal into a feast.

Mike scoffs at his own inner monologue, opens the door of his truck and grins as he jumps out. Powdered gravy is on his list. He knows it’s not good enough. There is no use getting upset about it. For now he will eat the powdered, freeze-dried, shipped-in, pre-packaged bullshit. One day his list look better. One day it will have gravy fixings, not mix.