Cups. Cups have been a part of dining since, well, all of time.
The cups that I filled today, in the “Let Me See Your Tuna Bowl” dish, did not have handles, nor were they adorned with fancy floral decorations or made of the finest china. However, as I worked to make sure each cup was PACKED with the right amount of salty, crunchy, sweet, salty, and spicy I thought. I get to do a lot of that in the kitchen. In between random bursts of my favorite song lyrics and after my super smooth dance moves as I move from the oven to the stove to the sink and then back again, I think. Sometimes the thoughts are about food and new meals that I want to create, but today I got lost in the cups. All the little cups.
If you have been around PACKED for a minute you have surely noticed all the little cups. Sometimes they are filled with crunchy onions that I want to make sure stay that way until they get to your mouth, or a sauce that has been slowly brewing on the stovetop for hours, or even some chopped fresh goodies that I don’t want to see the inside of your microwave.
Today though my thoughts went from all the little cups to my lifelong obsession with details and the little things. Matter of fact some of my favorite artwork to create involves a smooth white weighted paper and the finest black tip Micron. I can sit for hours and just get lost in drawing all the tiny details inside of a butterfly wing, or creating my own images with a ton of tiny repeated shapes. This same love for the detail, the essence, the accessories, has followed me into the kitchen.
Details for me make things more interesting. In my current creative role as a chef, those details are intended to make your experience with your meal more interesting. Offering your mouth a sort of journey. A journey across flavors, textures, smells, and sometimes into a plane to fly to the land of “What is that?!”
Then I found myself thinking about all the little cups and things that others do that I find add detail to my life. The first thing that started flashing through my brain were all the people that have stopped, sometimes during the middle of their meal, and messaged me to let me know the joy that my meals have brought to their day. As I let those thoughts wash over me I felt a connection to the process of the details and those of you that I feel so lucky to cook for. You matter and are worthy of the details. I felt especially motivated and honored today to make sure that each meal was full of my love. My love for detail, my love for food, my love for the dining experience, and my love for each of you that have given me the chance to create meals for you that encapsulate so much more then just the food.
PACKED 