We spend enough time discussing food, wine, kitchens, ingredients, people and the like that our own ears have heard enough. It is time to share our thoughts and learned lessons, and we learn a fair amount daily, with a greater audience.
Our kitchens both home and professional are littered with post it notes and Cambridge notebooks with ideas, recipes, techniques, extrapolations and more ideas. Does our abundance of culinary thought prove our worth or that the thoughts are worthy? No. That is for you to decide.
We are beginning today, to organize and categorize living and breathing culinary thought. These thoughts once written become memories, hopefully memorable, and now becoming organized to be used by us and others as a tool for culinary exploration.
Sharing discoveries with ideas in food.
-So there are two of us writing this, obviously. That was Alex, H. Alexander Talbot, my husband and co-chef. I'm Aki Kamozawa, chef, wine geek, reader, writer, etc. Alex is the cerebral one, he focuses on flavors, textures, techniques and food science in his pursuit of flavor. I prefer the method of looking back to look forward. Food history and food writing are my touchstones. I love taking old recipes and ideas and making them new again. I tend to think in terms of the individual diners (the people, not the restaurants) and try to create experiences through food that will bring them home again, perhaps to a home that they've never experienced before. It sounds a little bit far-fetched but I actually have a lot of fun with it.
Anyway, these chronicles will be ours, sometimes mine, sometimes his. Occasionally as in this instance we will write something together but more often you will find his words or mine. I may be mistaken but I think it will be relatively easy to tell the difference although we will be signing our personal notations. Don't be afraid to play favorites or to change your mind from time to time, our styles are divergent but that's why they meld together so well. Balance in all things, if we both like and/or agree on something it's a pretty good bet that we're on to something. On the other hand, two opinions keep us from writing something off too soon or laboring endlessly over a dead elephant. We welcome comment, criticisms, challenges, they make us think harder and more creatively. Welcome to our journeys in food and wine. We look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Aki & Alex
