Opinions

One of the great things about this website is the exchange of ideas. We throw concepts out with our spin on them and invariably they come back to us with entirely new slants and shadings from the different perspectives of our readers. We love that.  We firmly believe that the only way cooking, or any process for that matter, can evolve is by asking questions and challenging ideas. There is always room to grow, to learn more, to make mistakes, and to try again. Lord knows we've made plenty of mistakes in the past and will make many more before we're done.  Success is a wonderful and often times elusive goal. In our experience there is as much to be gained from the process as there is from those brief moments of completion.

Every chef is out there trying to express their idea of the perfect meal. This meal changes daily or hourly depending on the chef. All we have to guide us is our vision and the input of our cooks and diners. We do our best to listen and to adapt and to be open to the opinions of others.  Let me be clear here, we are open to the opinions of other people and they will often influence the way we look at a particular situation or idea. This does not mean we are always going to change our opinions. After all, we don't even agree on everything. Now sometimes it can take us an hour or a day or two to digest a conversation or email and to extract the salient points without being unduly influenced by our egos or that of the speaker/sender.  I do find it interesting when people have only one side of a story or situation and choose to draw their own conclusions without bothering to investigate the full story, and then expect their opinion to carry weight. I am sure we've been guilty of it ourselves and it begs the question of why. What are we trying to accomplish with that approach and why have we chosen to be one-sided? It's always important to get your facts straight before you weigh in. We do our best to assume that in most cases constructive criticism is intended and to view the dialogue in that light. In any case, accepting someone else's opinion does not mean that you have to embrace it or make it your own. It simply means that you understand what a person is saying to you and acknowledge their thoughts and their wish to share them with you. Sometimes though, the approach makes a real conversation impossible. Please do share your thoughts with us and please don't expect us to  to always agree with you. A conversation is much more interesting when all parties are allowed to have their own opinions.

*As for the picture, that is a pumpkin-white chocolate cheesecake with spiced apricot strips, a dessert which produced a vast number of opinions, for better and for worse.