Food is, Exciting
Why is it that food speaks not only to our stomachs, but our memories? The smells you can only appreciate with your eyes closed and a deep breath in; food triggers the most influential and communal memories we have. How special! (more on this later)
My girlfriend and I live in downtown Los Angeles, and have access to some of the best restaurants in the country/world. LA was not always thought of as a food haven, instead that went to our northern sister, San Francisco, but now days LA is back on the map as a premier food hot spot with the top tier Chefs to show for it!
One of my personal favorite things in life is dining out. I will spend hours on end planning out one night, 3 stops, every dish and cocktail I want to try, a restaurant hopping extravaganza :). My girlfriend (Gabi), my mother (Stacey) and occasionally the other random participant get put through my exhaustive food endeavors, but my 1 saving grace no matter what corner of LA I drag them too; We eat, and laugh, and smile together every time. Nothing on earth is better than good company and good food, and the feeling of togetherness you get at a great restaurant; and that simple notion drives my passion and my career in the industry.
So what makes a great restaurant?
Restaurant culture means many things to many people. A livelihood in the industry, special occasion meals out with family and friends, daily ordering takeout, eating clean, eating just for sustenance, passion for ingredients, there are so many lenses with which people view this task that we all partake in. A truly Human ideal is to eat in order to live, but as we all know, food has taken on so much more within the identity of who we are personally, within in our family and within our greater community. Food to me represents a personal fascination or even obsession with taking what is necessity and developing it into culture. A restaurant spends months if not years establishing their identity, their core ideals and cooking philosophy, simple or extravagant there are typically a few items on the menu that everything is built around. Around the flavors, the idea, the ingredients, the colors, these things together start to create a culture in the kitchen. And once that culture spreads into the dining room, into the ambiance and vibe, and into the hearts and souls of its patrons there is nothing more electric than a bustling restaurant!
The energy of good music, drinks shaking, laughter echoing, waiters moving swiftly like a dance from one table to the next, this energy is a rare and beautiful feeling, its intoxicating and it is exactly what we all crave in a night out! When I think about it, I truly cannot remember the intimate details of a lot of vacations, or nights on the couch with family, days at work, out with friends, etc..but what I do hold on to are those special meals, in special places, with those special people.
The places and bites that changed my life and perspective, range from the high end experiences of Tuna Ribbons from Jean George in Manhattan, to the Potato Taquitos at Guerrilla Taco here in LA, or the fish and chips from C-Lovers in Horseshoe Bay BC, to the crab pizza from Hali’imaile General Store on Maui, to Congee from either Nightshade (Los Angeles) or Rooster and the Pig (Palm Springs), I have no price range on quality food, the only question to ask is, “How does it taste?!”
These bites for me live on as nuggets of inspiration and the heart beat behind my passion for food. Stay tuned as I walk you through my ever growing knowledge and unwavering love affair with the food industry!