Inspiration from nature
I’ve been reading alot about where chefs get their inspiration from. In the last food and wine there was an article about Pierre Gagnaire and his inspirations, which ranged from art to perfume. That must have been in the back of my mind when I spent the day here. Everything looked so good to me, the colors and lines, the wild, earthy shapes and smells. Variety is a very appetizing thing to me, the amazing variety of ground covers that covered the land was somthing I haven’t seen. It made me think of the mixed green salad I’ve had once and never again. Each leaf of the salad was different and crisper and fresher than I’ve ever had but warm from the sun, just picked, never been refrigerated. One was sour like sorrel, one peppery mustard, one sweet baby kale, licoricey, spicy, sweet, topped off with kale flowers. These flavors were only hightened by the addition of some lemon, fine olive oil and sea salt. The colors were dark, purpley green, frilly white, bronze, yellow, violet, baby green. Someday I’m going to have that salad again and the ground cover reminded me of that. In nature there are so many beautuful lines that get me thinking about the lines and thought that go into plating a dish. Arbutus trees seem like exotic birch trees, and birch trees, fir, pine and eucalyptus is what I want. These pictures are for me to draw upon when I need to create dishes down the road and I wanted to share them.