We’re All Just Sensitive People (file under With So Much To Give)

I want to start this post by saying that I’m so proud of the love of my life, my future wife and the mother of our children for the great success she has had in NYC. Babe, I’m so proud of you. I knew that you would kick ass and you did, have and will continue to. You are a true rarified and unique gem and I’m grateful to know you, to be with you and to share love with you. You are amazing. That said…

What does it mean to feel? To taste? Smell? Hear? What does it mean when one person likes one thing and another something else? I know that these questions might seem like a reductum ad absurdum but I assure you they are not. In the kitchen I now find myself wondering why what is crunchy to one is not to another. How the sound is heard, analyzed and internalized. Flavour is an easy one because every one has a different palate and different taste sensations. Is everything that I am doing now subjective? Or is there objectivity? Is there a way to create a universally appealing dish? Anyone? These are questions that I have running through my head at least eighteen hours a day.

Another question I have running through my head right now is; if you could have any meal what would it be? I’ve now come to expand it to any meal at any time. Before expanding it my answer was the Emperor’s Banquet inside the Forbidden City. I know that at this particular moment given the fact that China has the Olympics and that there are all kinds of geo political forces at work that it may not be the politically correct answer but really. The Emperor’s feast. For those of you who are unaware of what the Emperor’s Feast is just go here; http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=234 . Now obviously the feast has changed a bit. But still can you imagine being a party to something like that even today.

In terms of the historical context it is hard for me to decide which meal I would want and in what time period. There are so many people that I would love to have dinner with from history that the question could literally take ten lifetimes for me to answer. What about you? What meal would you want?

So in the past week I have read about four hundred and fifty very dense pages on the culinary arts. I didn’t write yesterday because I was trying to figure out how best to present it to you. I decided to give a salient top down view of what I’ve learned.

Obviously I wrote last week about the culinary journey I took around the world. That journey now complete I have started trying to figure out if there is a way to mix, as example) traditional Polish food with French? Or Japanese with Southern? Or you get the idea. Food is meant to be played with, experimented with and enjoyed. If you enjoy something from one culture and another, why not find a way to marry the two. Harmony of course being the goal. I believe that the answer to harmony will come from being true to the ingredient, exposing its strength as well as its weakness and letting the palate work it all out. But we’ll see as time goes by how that changes for me.

I learned all proteins as well. The various cuts, what they are used for and some of their flavour profiles. On my next day off I will spend some time explaining further. As it is right now, I’m going to study.

I hope you all are doing well. I trust that you are all working on isolating your dream and taking the first steps to get there.

The Dalai Lama once said; “I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.”

I hope you all find inner peace. I have and am grateful to those both outside and inside the kitchen that have helped me find it.

Dream inspired.

A la prochaine

SDM