Last Sunday was our National Holiday and as always we gor to witness some impressive and loud sounding planes flying over our house after being part of our annual military defile. In general Belgians do not celebrate as much as for example the Americans and the French. Still, you can then for sure notice that there is a certain holiday atmosphere within our tiny nation. We ourselves had a lovely luncheon in Antwerp at a restaurant called Hiro. And believe me in case you ever end up in front of their restaurant and you love Japanese food then this is a must go place. Especially if you ever been to Japan and long for a specific je ne sais quoi that you have experienced while you were facing the heat, humidity and the never ending fast but at the same time mindfull paste that the nation of the eternal sun carries within.
Oh yes, I know that food preferences are very personal and what I like, you might not like. That is fine. Through out the years I had the pleasure to walk into restaurants where you just sense something that is very hard to copy and paste. There is something at work that is unique and at the same time makes you long for more. Something that makes them stand out amongst the crowd. After all is enjoying food one of the most sense involving activities that you get to enjoy. Not only with your body, but also with your mind. Therefor we all have our own very personal memory box of food that we love and depise. There is the aspect about food that is a very deep going one that is very hard to beat.
The restaurants that serve dishes that are linked to specific countries are not always a guarantue you will get served the food that you remembered when you for example bought street food along the road in Mexico or twirled around your pasta carbonara in Rome. Food experiences and the memories you get to create abroad sometimes end up in your core memories and believe me it is almost impossible to beat the orginals. They are hard core and there will always be something that will make long for it to happen again.
Myself travelled alone to Japan and I have been in a very mindfull state when I was in that nation. A nation that still speaks to my immagination. The moment that I for the first time hailed a Japanese taxi and the doors did swing open and wondered if it was even safe to get in I will never ever forget. My first Macha ice cream cone and believe it or not the first croissant I ate in Tokyo still make me go in over drive. And then there is the shaved ice cream I had in the Bleu Lounge in Tokyo in combo with those fluffy Japanese pancakes! There were so many unforgettable food moments I had and that will never ever forget.
Stil, there is one that stands out. The last evening of my stay I had a grilled meat skewer from a 7 eleven on my way to my hosts while the annual fireworks where lightning up the sky. Pleqse believe me it was a taste explosion. I still remember so vividly the heat, the fluorescent lights of the shop and the irristible smell of grilled meat of that moment that me made give into buying that street food. In front of the store there were no seats and so I ended up eating that quick bite while I was standing and my mobile phone was running out of juice. So there was also anxiety running through my veins in combo with a very unexplainable urge to just enjoy every singele bite. It was if that piece of meat on a stick suddenly took over and made me forget everything else and at the same time my senses were fully activated. A memorable bite to say the least...I still rave about that one.
Not that this will suprise those who know me well..I rave a lot about food. P and I love going to restaurants and we have over the last two decades been to many special culinary hotspots! Some of them are the ones that food critics have tested and reviewed. Those are the ones that most of the time you enter with very high expectations and hope that by the time coffee and the gourmandises arrive you have experienced something similar than the food critic did. And then there are diamonds in rogue...the ones that kind of ask you to leave your comfort zone. In a sense you are flying a bit blind when you read their menu. I love these above everything else because they are rather rare to come across.
Now I totaly understand that there are number of people who would never wish to give a lot of money for a seven course dinner. Please believe me if I tell you that I also like a good steak with homemade fries, and you can always wake up in the middle of the night for a velvet cupcake. The thing is that more and more I am becoming aware of how much hard work hospitality and cooking is. It is not easy to keep a restaurant or food truck running smoothly and at the same time remaining finacial healthy. Quite a few people will tell you that the culinary restaurants tend to over charge and that some of them are over hyped. Honestly, some of them are. P will be very open when he feels that a luncheon or dinner has not lived up to his expectations. But one thing we both keep repeating over and over again and that creating dishes and cooking food is team work and involves a lot of hard work, passion, creativity, endurance, concentration and guts. Something we have so much respect for and do not take for granted.
It is because of all of this that I love also the Disney FX series The Bear. A series that tells you the story about Carmy, a young promising chef who decides to return to his family owned beef sandwich restaurant. At first glance you do wonder why in the world a young chef who is trained by some of the best chefs in the world would ever go back to a very greasy and dysfunctional kitchen. Within that question lies everything that The Bear makes so extraordinary and an outstanding series. Forget all the things you think you know about working in a kitchen. Unless you are part of a cooking crew or hospitality team that day and night tries to aim for the stars. Then you know...you do and you are surely one of those that must have been struggling to get the message across what working is like in a small and crowdy kittchen.
The Bear is showered in nominations and honestly they deserve every single one of them. For those who have ever visited a star restaurant might know that most of them willl agree with them that the ones that stand out are the ones that make sure that not only the chef is hailed but rather the whole team. Dissecting the dish that miracalously appears in front of you on pristine white table linnen is a collission of forces. Nothing is a coincidence and the the moment you get to taste that collaboration you get to find out what the power within of hospitality is.
The thing is that it takes a lof of patience to get there where many ambitious and passionate chefs wish to end up. And no, not all of them aim for the red Michelin guide. Some of them just wish to cook and feed the people and let them taste their creation. All of this in the hope that they will manage to understand what they first managed to put to together. Those Moleskine notebooks that chefs fill up with ideas, sketches and observations are their personal testemony of a very intense journey. A journey that they not easily share. The chefs that publish their notebooks are even more rare than the three star restaurants you find around the globe. It are their well hidden vaults that not easily share the code of with others. They do therefor try to let the dishes speak to us and that is very risky business.
And there you have it why I do think that we at times still forget how hard it is for chefs and hospitiality teams to get the message across. That many struggle to survive and many will never get there where they would love to. It is a brutal game that we as customors and foodies do not get to witnesss. And a no, an open kitchen does not let you get closer to the core of a restaurant. It are ratther the people moving around in there and most of the time they are silent. From our point of view it as if they just are on an autmatic pilot and that each one of them knows their lines without a single hesitation.
Oh yes, I do know that there are those cooking shows that try to let you see what a chef can be like...Gordon Ramsey is perhaps the most straightforward example of this. 'Yes, chef.', and 'No, chef.' are the few words that seem only the few words that sous-chefs and others are allowed to use within a kitchen. In The Bear many more words are catapulted at us viewers and if you let this series be decanted and breath then you will see so much more.
Yes, The Bear is a very nice creative and cinamatographic series that I dare to describe as a pot pourri of images that at times feel as if they do not fit together. I will never forget watching that first episode with P and that we felt even a bit claustrophic and even a bit struggling. 'It is as if you ar really with them in that kitchen.', P commented. Yes, The Bear lets you witness that most of the time is covered up by a lid that stays firmy on top of the container. That the series is considered a 'comic' one is after one is rather questionable. Seeing Carmy going in total overdrive and all the yelling that takes place within that tiny kitchen feels as if whoever came up with that description was a bit out of their mind.
Then of you like food and once in a while celebrate life with a nice drink and a tasty dish then you must know what happens if you manage to give it some time to let it all sink in. You need to savour the moment...you need to open up your mind...let your senses guide you where you sometimes rather stay away from...try to loose control and the journey take you wherever the teamwork wants you to end up. It is hard work and some of us might never find this a worthwhile trip. That's okay but that The Bear for once decided to push over board all the glamour and bling is a very courageous thing to do. It focused on the darker side of the culinary world...Carmy is Annakin who is about to tip over to the dark side...(sorry I could not resist)
My parents have always tried hard to point out that cooking is a life skill and that there are people who even manage to let it be an art. For years I have been dreaming to go to a three star restaurant and when my parents came back from one I just could not wait them describe to me what they experienced. It rather seemed that this was rather challenging. After all in the eighthies and nineties you had no smart phone with you to take pics. There was something within what they did not say that gave away what their dinner or luncheon had been like. My painful realisation was most of the time that they had been there and I was granted an extra portion of crisps as a treat to fascilate to babysitter her job. They had been out on very personal journey and there was no way to let me understand what they experienced.
The thing is that my mother is an excellent cook and that she also dares to push her boundaries. The Bocuse cook book in my mothers kitchen cupboard was a very visible. Still, I am pretty sure that it is the notebook that she rather keeps behind kitchen cabinets doors that withholds her cooking journey. And then there are the recipes that she was thaught by her mother. Those stand the test of time and are the ones that seem to still make me marvel and make me travel to the core of it all. A very intense sensation that you can not fake, not immitate or vein, that hits you right between the eyes will fill you up with all the feels. No, there are no right words to decribe what these dishes do me. The one thing that I do very clearly remember when mother or grandmother cooked or baked together is that they did this in silence.
My mother does not boost about this...she 'just' does the groceries, does her mise en place, puts on her cooking appron and starts then in silence...and the only thing she might then ask us to set the table. In my family the Sunday roast was a special thing but it also involved my dad entering my mothers kingdom. He was the onely one who was allowed to do the cutting and it mattered to my mother. Since my dad died I can not remember her cooking a Sunday roast. The dish died so to speak and that in total silence...(I admit that I am now in tears while letting my fingers slide over my keyboard)
Now that I am older it is if I can seen more clearly what my mother and all those chefs always are trying to tell me. Every single one of them that creates and cooks, pushes out their love and courage in the hope that you will connect. That food critics can make or break a chef and that the proof of the pudding is in eating it ourselves we then tend to forget. Personal taste is a very strong emotion and I will never get into an argument when it comes down to this. My food journey is a very personal one but I will always try to be open minded. Never ever will I force my taste on someone else. It does not work like that...especially when it comes down to cooking and eating.
Not that I will not share my observations....for example that tiny restaurant Hiro in Antwerp I mentioned at the beginning of this rather lengthy entry located in the shadow of the impressive MAS-building is exactly what I am after when it comes down to the impact of hospitality. Chances are very likely that you will walk passed it if you not first have checked it out. Never ever would I have entered that rather dark spot. It does not exactly communicates and it is not filled up with crystal glasses and pristine white napkins. It took a bit of courage to enter and then let go all my prejudice that seems takes hold of my culinary part of my brain. One thing that I noticed straight away was the silence within the place and how the staff seemed to rather float and the moment I had managed to take a closer look at the their beverage list I embarked for that one journey that I so grave for....the one that will let me have taste explosions and let me connect with happiness.
Oh yes, I could now describe in detail what I had and how excellent the service was. But hey, I am not going to...you were not there with me when I was sipping of that broth in which an excellent piece of sea barse was swimming and when I sipped of the tasty cocktail filled up with a great mixture of spirits and ice cubes that slowly melted. Outside there was a delightful breeze and was my tiny nation recovering from the heat and all I could think is that I am so lucky to be granted a glimpse of what the people behind the counter try to create without boosting and making a lot of noise. Not only did some very tasty dishes ended up in front of me but also I got to witness that well synched kitchen ballet. By the time we walked back to our car I was content and in total balance...I did not needed more. Nope, believe me I was not full...that is not what food should do...dietary advice even will tell you that a filled up stomach is not what you should experience when enjoying a meal.
That team of four people in that tiny restaurant nailed to make me travel back to that night in Tokyo when there were fireworks in the sky and my taste buds were fired up. I was all by myself but at the same time totally grounded and fully alive and kicking. The character of Carmy in The Bear is struggling to get his message across and he is in total turmoil when he is in his kitchen. He is trying very hard and he has got many people around him that believe in him but he still not masters the silence...silence is a very essential ingredient of a dish...even the turmoil he has experienced while becoming who is he has to let breath and come alive in his dishes. Is it daring and not risk free because after all as in most professions he has come across toxic people and passive agresssiveness that can easily make your cooking end up in the bin.
No..you do not need to book a table at a three star chef to let people connect within and feel happy and content. It is not the crystal long stemmed wine glasses, the cryspy slices of whole grain bread with pumpkin seeds served with farm produced butter, the starched white and nicely folded napkins, the Japanese gin out of wooden barrels served with dehydraded slices of lemon, the pink himmalyan salt in hand made creamic colorful pots with tiny golden spoons, the fragile but at the same time utterful beautiful white plates, the oysters that are covered with tiny tasteful ingredients, the grilled to perfection piece of Waygu, the utterly expensive bottle of Barolo you pour in the glass to toast to your husbands fifthy's birthday, the dessert showstopper that is topped up with stirred to perfection whipped cream,....no that is not what it is about. It is about the silence hidden within all of those delicous dishes or snacks and more. And before it managed to do so this it did involve a lot of hit and miss on all levels.
The makers of The Bear will tell you the rather messy story that goes on behind the closed doors and behind the silence ...and believe they nail it...they have been eating and observing in silence and managed to connect with what hospitality wants us to understand and they believe most of those who are a bit of a foodie who not need a parade or a star review. After all it is the brother of Carmy who already knew long time before anyone else what his brother masters...the Italian beef sandwich of the Berzatto family contains all the ingredients to master silence but Carmy still needs to figure that out while the ones around have already figured it out....in silence...within...deep within. After all..'Everything that grows together goes together.', a food produce market seller tells one of Carmy his sous chefs Tina. The journey from produce to the plate is one that is so essential and Tina suddenly saw the light and this in total silence!
I wish you all a very lovely summer and that you have yourself plenty of those foodie experiences, no matter where and what. That croissant you migth nibble while heading for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, the Parmessan cheese that you sprinkle over the home made spaghetti after visiting the Ufizzi, the bottle of bubbles you have chilled to drink with friends in the shadow of the oak tree in your garden to celebrate friendship , the sweet and sugary taste of the wedding cake your groom feeds you, the cut to perfection cucumber sandwich served with your Eerl Grey tea at Fortnum&Mason in London, the sushi cut up by a very focused sushi chef in Kyoto, the smoaked salmon you picked out yourself in a fish shop in Sweden for a picnic on the beach to watch the sun set, the greasy hot dog that you bought from a smiley street vendor on the streets of NYC, the feta and melon you cut up for a fresh salad to go along with that one barbecue you longed for during the long and dark winter, the scoops of gelato of your local ice cream vendor that cool you down, the bucket of popcorn salted to perfection you take along the aircontioned cinema venue to watch the Minions in back in action, the crispy Belgian waffle covered in sweet tasting whipped cream while wandering over the Grand Place of Brussels, the juicy and sweet pieces of pineapple cut up for you to enjoy after a very hot day on a African safari, the Starbucks coffee that you sip on next to your car heading for your summer destination, the tasty and spice street food you devour after hiking with a heavy back pack through Mexico, the all you can eat buffet you get to enjoy as part of your all inclusive trip to Greece, the cold but perfectly brewed glass of beer you jump around with during a summer festival, the hot apple tea you get served after a visit to a Turkish bath in Bursa, the delicous dim sum served by Thai waitress with a contagious smile, a cuban rum that enhances your beach coctktail next to the swimpool...have your self a tasty summer filled up with 'silence'...Carmy envies you...the anti hero who still needs to shake off the toxic and let go when he cooks up his star worthy 'silence'. He longs for that silence in order to manage to speak to us...the ones who are openminded and are grateful, the ones that are essential puzzle pieces to let food speak while we are totally silent...I wish you all a very delighful summer filled up with lots of memorable moments and meaningul times and bites that will make you travel within...in silence or with a lot of noise...Enjoy your meal...
P.S.: I did pick music that I have come across while I was enjoying food or when I was sipping from a drink. And the Triavata one I came across when watching an episode of The Bear. The picture I picked out is linked to The Bear as well and only for this one you should watch that series...
PS: For those that wish to check out Hiro...lunch and dinner are both great. In case you love rather prefer silence then book a table for lunch rather than for dinner. Still dinner at Hiro is also great fun and the sound bites that are served are also standing out in positive ways. It surely is culinary hot spot that if you love Japanese food and a nice drink deserves to be checked out.
