Journal ·
The first conversation
Every commission begins the same way: not with a menu, but with questions.
Before a single dish is considered, there is a conversation. Who is coming? What is being celebrated, or mourned, or simply enjoyed? What does the room feel like at eight in the evening? Does the host want to be at the stove-side of the night, or entirely free of it?
“The conversation is the first course.”
The answers change everything. The same eight guests might call for a five-hour tasting menu or a single perfect roast, depending on why they are gathering. A menu written without this knowledge is just a list of things the cook likes making.
It is why there are no menus to choose from here, and never will be. The conversation is the first course.
— Samuel