Is a mere recipe really worth risking 'failure in life' over? Is food really something that can be meaningful and life-affirming?
I love the process of creating and serving food and people who devote themselves to making the world a better place one serving at a time. And as I watched the first episode of Netflix's production called Chef's Table featuring Massimo Bottura, I have never felt so utterly moved by a chef's ideas and philosophy about life.
I don't care whether Massimo Bottura's restaurant 'Osteria Francescana' has the envious rep of being the world's third best restaurant in the world as much as the man himself and what and how he thinks, because after all, history is littered with the corpses of people who never made it, despite being mindblowingly original and creative and bold and 'I'm gonna go out there and make a dent in the universe' attitude - qualities that I worship.
Yes, worship.
No, what takes me by the neck and inspires me to raise my own consciousness is Mr. Bottura's passion for life and being original while living it each day. What gives me goosebumps is his way of taking a failure and throwing it back on the wall and turning it into a metaphorical fresco when lesser people would have just slumped down and given up.
Steven Soderbergh, while accepting his Oscar for directing 'Erin Brockovich', dedicated his prize to "anyone who has ever created something - i don't care whether its a book or music or whatever".
I too reserve the greatest respect for anyone who has ever dared to create something that moves this world forward in ANY sense against the forces of disorder and apathy and emotional and physical entropy and brings order and energy back into our lives.
I will definitely be watching more of Chef's Table's episodes, and I hope you would too and spread the word. In this mostly sad, pathetic, morose, inert, world we need all the inspiration we can get. I know I do.