Let’s set some ground rules

This is a journal of food and cooking. And, inherently, eating. It is not about the best recipe (not always) or what chef left this place for that place or why the crystal fails to impress mother-in-law. There are other sites for that. We’d like to humbly propose, to the best of our abilities, to bring food back to genesis, to taste, to the idea of reclaiming pleasure, fully and without apology. To humanize food and cooking, and have fun, goddammit! We don’t have to hunt and gather (in the primeval sense, anyway), so why not dedicate some of that saved time to actually enjoying the process of making food — good food — sharing it with loved ones, and, ultimately, consuming it. The cook or artist or architect or filmmaker who cannot enjoy his or her own work is, well, fucked. The creator lacking impetus or inclination to elevate builds an internal prison without keys. Martyrdom is just one of life’s downers. There are lots more. Dull knives. Dull tongues. Dull desires.

I can’t help but think how snobby and classist this sounds.

To some (I’d even venture to say the majority), food is just food, and cooking is a last-choice means to an end. Food to live, etc. I confess that for me personally, a car is just a car, a shirt is just a shirt. Gearheads and fashionistas shudder, just as I do when they mangle their hard, pink tomatoes with a dollar store knife, or insist Chevy’s is the best Mexican (not that it’s not tasty, but that’s another discussion altogether).

I guess the bottom line to this rambling is, food is good. Food is fun. Collecting, perfecting, creating and enjoying food drives untapped energies and desires. So let’s dig in already.