Imagination & Curiosity

Last weekend we had a chance to cook out of town and decided to take advantage to stay an extra night and rest our weary bones. We were on St. George Island, in a rented house on the bay. We all took snacks and booze. I took magazines and cookbooks.

People who work with food for a living never really stop working. You have to eat anyway – though in my case, people might say “Really, Kim, less could be more.” But no matter what else is happening in a cook’s life, her culinary curiosity is on, 24/7.

This was my view, my muse, if you will.  

I started Sunday morning, almost with the rise of the sun, and with coffee.

I continued, late into the morning, with a Bloody Mary. It looks like work, pages ripped out of magazines, notes made in little journals, but it’s a kind of hunger that real food doesn’t satisfy. It has to do with creative sparks, concepts, nudges from pictures or words that later turn into suspicions of thoughts, then genuine ideas.

In an interview by Nicole Alpert, published in Food Arts, July/Aug 2010, Nicole asks Julia Child a question:

NA: "Do you ever get tired of cooking?"
JC: "No, never. Food is a boundless resource for the imagination. And the real joy is in the doing. There’s always so much to experiment with, so many ways to explore one’s passions in food.”

 

Michael Batterberry, who along with his wife Ariane, founded both Food & Wine, and Food Arts, and who died in July, 2010, was eulogized in the New York Times on July 29, 2010. Among the many details of his life and exploits, Margalit Fox had this to say about him: “In his work, and in his many appearances on television and the radio, he made clear that his interest lay not merely in food per se, but in food as a mirror of the collective national psyche.”

Some of us regard food as the source of our nourishment, others as the magic carpet of our imagination; the very lucky ones see it as both. What I know, is that it can completely occupy me on a sunny Sunday on St. George Island.

The Garden of Eden

It’s still spring. It will still be spring when the sweaty nights begin to feel like summer but, for the time being, it’s spring and feels like spring. Since we work outside most of the time, that’s a pretty important distinction.

There were bugs, yes, noseeums and mosquitoes but the family had thoughtfully provided an array of bug killing options so they didn’t trouble us much.






It was perfectly still when we arrived; our chit-chat, laughter and lifting-grunting the only sounds. Well, there were birds. And we were alone: before the wedding coordinators, the florists, the musicians, the photographers, the caricature artist… the guests.

It picked up, the musicians began to strum and sing, the florists prettied up the place, the wedding coordinator organized, guests trickled in, fires were lit, steak and grouper sizzled on the grill, the sun set, liquor was poured and the party was on.

But for a short time, this little corner of paradise had been all our own.

Thanks to H&M Tent and Party Rentals, Christina Gillon, Fete Events, Nouveau Flowers

No, you can't eat it!

Fresh Gulf Shrimp

Every once in a while we get 
to do something completely 
different, something more like
play than work.

The Classic Canape'

And such was the case when we were invited by Southern Bride Magazine to provide food props for a photo shoot last month at Seaside.

I asked a bunch of questions and they said blue was good. I agreed, of course, blue's good, but it doesn't appear naturally in food very often and - according to people who should know - it isn't a color that does much to excite the palate.

Well, it turned out that it didn't all have to be blue and that was a relief.

And at the end they asked if they could eat the food. "Good grief, no! It's for pretty, not tummies.

Well, ok, you can eat the blueberry trifle!










Some photos provided courtesty of Jeff McDowell.