chef's table
i find it poignant that the featured chefs produced their most authentic food only after going on often difficult journeys filled with setbacks to find themselves and where they came from.
the best dishes seem to speak to so much more than the person who made them to encompass whole communities and historic ways of life. people can taste it and are hungry for more!
my top favorites are: mashama bailey (co-owner of the grey in savannah georgia) and how she found her roots in a transformed and formerly segregated bus depot space. only when she went back to the foods from her grandmother's kitchen and the land they came from did mashama's cooking magic really cohere. think all the best things about when french training meets southern comfort.
dario cecchini (multiple generation butcher who wanted to be a veterinarian) in italy--the tenderness of his love for animals made me cry! when it fell to him to keep the family business going, a mentor taught him how to rethink his role as not just killing, but rather completing the living gift of the livestock he so dearly tends at pasture. he grew up eating all the parts customers didn't want and, despite being surrounded by meat did not have his first steak until age 18. ("it was ok", he said, "i prefer the other cuts".) he has influenced the world-wide stewardship of using the whole animal without waste at his one-long-table italian restaurants where every day is a celebration.
asma khan (from india to london) who runs darjeeling express, giving 'second daughters' back their dignity. when she was born, her mother cried. daughters, especially second ones, are considered a burden in her culture. asma's journey took her from law school to informal supper parties before gathering women (not professional chefs, either, which i love) around her to form this famous kitchen and restaurant. she also runs a charity that turns being a daughter into a cherished celebration for indian women.
plate up, heart and soul.
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