Excellent.

An excellent book ...

Travel'd.

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist. 

William Blake

Excellent.

An excellent documentary ...

All cruelty springs from fear.

Seneca 

Knew.

From Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones, and Butter ...

There was an antique zinc bar with just four seats that had been salvaged from a bistro in France and shipped over. There were gorgeous antique mirrors everywhere, making the tiny space seem bigger than it was, and an old wooden banquette, and wrought-iron table bases. The floor, under all that sticky rat excreta, was laid with the exact same tiny hexagonal tiles that had been on the floor of a crêperie in Brittany where I had worked for a brief period in my early twenties. Even when gulping the comparatively fresh New York City air once back on the sidewalk, thinking I might have been poisoned in some way, I knew the space was exactly "me." There were ten sturdy burners. Just two ovens. And fewer than thirty seats. I could cook by hand, from stove to table, never let a propane brûlée torch near a piece of food, and if it came down to it, I could just reach over the pass and deliver the food myself. I knew exactly what and how to cook in that kind of space, I knew exactly what kind of fork we should have, I knew right away how the menu should read and how it would look handwritten, and I knew immediately, even, what to call it.

Thank you, Jess. 

Enormous.

Fergus Henderson, Trevor Gulliver, and education ...

At the heart of their relationship – which began through an introduction from an olive oil seller and, inevitably, a long lunch – is a shared faith in the sustaining joys of life. Both men are steeped in what you might call the rigour of gastronomic pleasure. The articles of St John’s faith are all about constancy and conviction, doing good things extremely well. When they first opened the restaurant, with its menu of tripes and bone marrow and welsh rarebit and addictive custard, they were accused of being 200 years out of date, which they took as an enormous compliment.

One of their key beliefs is that a great restaurant should insist on making a human shape to the day, beginning early with the baking of bread, and ending late with a final glass of something special. In an age of working lunches and clean eating, they have held fast to that principle. As a young man Henderson studied architecture – both his parents were architects – and he carried a profound understanding of structure into his eventual vocation. The foundations of that, he suggests to me as he works, were boyhood holidays to the Dordogne, where each morning the family would crack open the Michelin guide and ask the only two questions that ever really mattered: “Where shall we have lunch?” and “Where shall we have dinner?”

Cheeses.

Thank you, Jessica.

Live.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Oscar Wilde

Playing.

Walked into Big Sam's, hit first with the perfume from the pile of bacon on the flat top, then noticed Joy Division's "Disorder" playing as we sat down ...

... next it was INXS' "Horizons"...

... and the shrimp and grits came just as the Furs' "Susan's Strange" began ...

Today's mantra ... Edwards Virginia Smokehouse Smoked Sausage.  Repeat as needed.

Twenty-First.

Crave.

Chef Gabriel Kreuther teaching ...

Asking questions can be a treasure for you guys because you have a lot of knowledge around you.  Use it to your advantage.  Nobody is going to knock on your door and say, 'Hey!  I'm going to teach you something.'  You actually have to knock on the door and say, 'Show me something today.'  When you crave for learning, you learn.  That's really what it is ... get the knowledge and then have fun."

Thank you, Jessica.

Perfect.

The first and last five minutes of Big Night are pristinely perfect.  

When this scene ceases to make me smile and tear up at the same time I'll know I'm no longer living ...

Compensate.

In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.

Leonardo da Vinci

Pleasure.

Don’t be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave. Enjoy your cooking and the food will behave; moreover it will pass your pleasure on to those who eat it.

Fergus Henderson, from The Complete Nose to Tail

Henderson's St. John Bread & Wine ...

Beef mince on duck fat toast ...

The technique is HERE.

SPAGIO, Rest In Peace

The original bold-adventurer in Columbus, Spagio Pizza & Spa Cuisine has closed for the last time.

CONNECT

Thank you, Chef Hubert.

Trifecta.

... a trifecta of smoked fish—sturgeon, sable, and salmon.

CONNECT

Like.

So who the hell, exactly, are these guys, the boys and girls in the trenches? You might get the impression from the specifics of my less than stellar career that all line cooks are wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths. You wouldn't be too far off base. The business, as respected three-star chef Scott Bryan explains it, attracts "fringe elements", people for whom something in their lives has gone terribly wrong. Maybe they didn't make it through high school, maybe they're running away from something-be it an ex-wife, a rotten family history, trouble with the law, a squalid Third World backwater with no opportunity for advancement. Or maybe, like me, they just like it here. 

Anthony Bourdain

Working with kids is a humbling and satisfying privilege, but there isn't an hour in my day when I don't miss the old days.

Rarebit.

The St. John Welsh Rarebit ...

 

Relish.

It’s dark outside and you haven’t even left work. But! Grilled Kid Liver and Green Sauce awaits you at Bread and Wine tonight. With a glass of @stjohnwine Pinot Noir, perhaps... or a bottle, if you have a friend or a lover with whom to relish these long evenings.

CONNECT

Happy birthday, Henderson.

Fergus Henderson was born on this day in 1963.

Do not be afraid of cooking as your ingredients will know, and misbehave. Enjoy your cooking and the food will behave; moreover it will pass your pleasure on to those who eat it.

Fergus Henderson

CONNECT