Cooking is just a vehicle to express yourself, like painting and acting... The reason why we're cooking is not because we want to put something on the plate. It's so much more complex than that.
Dominique CrennRead
I don't want people to look at my menu and see just the ingredients. I want to take them on a journey.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of storytelling in culinary experiences beyond just the food itself.
Dominique Crenn expresses her desire for dining to be more than just a meal; she wants it to be an experience that engages the senses and emotions, transporting guests on a journey through her menu. This reflects a broader philosophy that art and creativity in cooking can create meaningful connections and memories rather than merely focusing on the components of a dish.
In practice
In a food blog discussing innovative culinary arts.
Cooking is just a vehicle to express yourself, like painting and acting... The reason why we're cooking is not because we want to put something on the plate. It's so much more complex than that.
Eating is an act of activism for me; it's politics.
My restaurant is an expression of myself - my fantasies. Where I've been, and where I want to be. I think of my cooking as very emotional.
When I interview people that want to work with us, I often disregard their resume, because a piece of paper, it doesn't tell me really who they are. I'm looking for honesty, vulnerability. I'm looking for strength, I'm looking for weakness. I'm looking also for someone that wants to learn and is excited about learning.
My grandmother was kind, but she knew what she wanted and she wasn't afraid to give a command. When, eventually, I ran my own kitchen, I realized I had a leadership model reaching back into my earliest memories.
Early in my career, I was told I shouldn't try to work in a kitchen, that I should consider serving or managing instead. It was a sad narrative that was given to me, and it came from a society that didn't know better.
Sometimes the fragment of a conversation, the color of the sky, the image in a dream, has everything to do with where the song begins.
What I am trying to translate to you is more mysterious, it is entwined in the very roots of being, in the implacable source of sensations.
The greatest writers have been, at heart, parochial, provincial in their rootedness.
I don't usually give out advice or recipes, but you must let the person looking at the photograph go some of the way to finishing it. You should offer them a seed that will grow and open up their minds.
I don't go to shows because I just want to listen to the music performed live. I want to get to know the person who's performing it. Or I want to, like, take away a sense that I had an experience that nobody else is going to have again, or a unique experience for that moment.
Photography is the truth if itβs being handled by a truthful person.
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