Today I came across a
a blog post by one of my favorite fiction writers, Marjorie M Liu, about finding inspiration which links to
an article by musician Andrew Bird (I've never experienced his music although I will definitely make it a point to check it out after reading his piece). Inspiration is something that we struggle to find on a daily basis. It rarely arrives in a flash of light or as an explosive discovery. Instead our search is more like fitting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. For quite some time you can connect the pieces almost absently, it's more about individual couplings than the whole. At some point you realize that you can see the image that you're chasing. It may be rough and unfinished but it is clearly visible and the remaining pieces almost fall into place.
Well, that is if you're lucky. There is certainly a rush of exultation when an amorphous idea

becomes a reality and a surge of adrenaline appears to carry you towards the finish line. In cooking many times those moments are where the real work begin. We often craft individual versions of our ideas first and the real test is recreating them so that they can be reproduced in volume by other hands with no discernible loss of quality. It is a constant challenge and one that we enjoy.
Our path this past year has been a surprising one. Had anyone asked us a year ago where we would be now I'm sure that we would have answered "in a restaurant". Clearly that hasn't happened and instead we have wandered an entirely different and novel path. The cooking classes have been amazing for us. We are constantly inspired by the people who come to our sessions. They question us, challenge us, and teach us new things every day. On the one hand we miss having an audience to cook for every day. On the other hand we have the flexibility to explore all of ideas and share them with others in ways that we might not be able to in a restaurant setting. For today this blog is our inspiration. Our readers are a big part of our motivation. We thank you for visiting us today and any other day you wish to join us. We couldn't do it without you.