Sublime

“I often say that being creative is simply being aware of your surroundings, and translating these impulses into a specific medium,” Achatz once wrote. “For me, that medium is cooking and dining.”

John Carlin, “If the World’s Greatest Chef Cooked for a Living, He’d Starve,” Guardian, December 11, 2006, http://observer.theguardian.com/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969713,00.html

At the airport, leaving Nashville, I had a taste for something sweet. I stood in front of the vending machine, trying to find a treat that was both satisfying and not too bad for me. Ridiculous, I know. To my left, a White man hovered. He was pale and small with a drawn face. He had a cap on, and a dark blue uniform that hung on him, leaving his br

Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London is invaluable. As is Nicolas Freleng's The Kitchen, David Blum's Flash in the Pan, the Batterberrys' fine account of American restaurant history, On the Town in New York, and Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. Read the old masters: Escoffier, Bocuse et al as well as the Young Turks: Keller, Marco-Pierre

Stockpots, saucepans, thick-bottomed saute pans are

This was food for cooks. This was food that we got. Simple, straightforward and absolutely pretense-free. Like Scott.

Much like a magician, Anthony instilled a sense of adventure and wonder in people—an honest quest not only to experience humanity and all its complexities through food and culture, but, more than anything else, the determination to give that same sense of discovery to an audience. He once said that travel—much like magic—is about the gorgeous feeli