Let me start this rumination on food and its enjoyment with a quote from William Butler Yeats. The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, Now, Yeats was not thinking about food when he wrote this. Far from it. He was more concerned with the price one has to pay – what one must give up in exchange for the toil and concentration required to become a [...]
Feb 192011
Feb 172011
As a general rule in restaurants, I don’t want a chef cooking my food who looks like a marathon runner. Like Shakespeare’s Caesar, “Let me have [chefs] about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.” I want people who love to eat, who have a hard time saying no to something good, and whose bodies bare the imprint of a rich, varied and luscious diet. With that said, I must confess [...]
Feb 162011
Few delights of summer are more satisfying than a fresh tomato, plucked from your own backyard vine, warm from the sun, sliced and eaten raw or with a touch of fresh mayonnaise. The aroma – even before you slice it – the rich red juice, the firm red flesh – ah. Few are the delights indeed that are better than a fresh tomato. But in winter, if you try the same slicing and eating mostly [...]
Aug 152010
Let me acknowledge at the outset that there is no question of contradiction in the notion of “family meals” made outside the family by someone not remotely connected to the family. But I did name our new service (four days of meals ready on Monday afternoon) deliberately. Our “family meals” are intended to be the same kind of food someone with time, inclination, basic skill and experience would provide at the evening table if the [...]
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