Taste

It always begins with taste. And taste begins with the eyes—the contrast of colors, the perception of textures, of softness or brittleness, the interplay of form and function. Then the feeling, is the roughness excused? Is its smoothness, its feel to the skin natural? Does it matter to your enjoyment that it is warm, scalding , cold or frozen? Does it matter to your enjoyment that it is warm, scalding, cold or frozen? We taste it most fully, first with our nose, even before our lips part, even before the flavor profile hits our tongues. It’s a miniscule second that separates the scent and the burst of flavors in our mouths, the neurons zapping to and from the brain with a verdict.

It’s the taste that counts, yet taste itself, is as unique as the confluence of all our senses. But that is the challenge. And if you ask me truly, deeply, why I am doing what I’m doing now. And if you have time, then I’ll tell you. It’s the pursuit of that unseen gold medal, to venture into creating something that meets my standard of taste.

Nobody opens a food business, no matter how small, with only money in mind. It is always a need to please. In my little soon to open pie shop, aside from the entrepreneurial part of it (the market research,the demand for the products etc.) I find a chance to indulge in one of my fantasies, one of those passions I carry with me no matter what transpires or where I end up in life, it is this one little chance to create to the best of my skills something that honestly tastes good, or something that’s at par to what for me is good food.

If I had millions of moolah, I’d live like a nomad, and trample all around the world to eat the food that up till now I’ve only devoured in books and blogs. I want to know what tastes good for Alinea’s Grant Achatz, a taste of Napa Valley’s French Laundry, or understand the methods and madness of El Bulli’s Ferran Adria. There are hundreds of chefs that wield such immense devotion, such worship, those who stand on the merits of their achievements and courage—for following and sticking to what for them tastes good. And though my little shop would in no way be in those levels, it is in my awe of their greatness that has made me so determined to go through with it. It starts and begins with taste, though the incredibly daunting and often frustrating steps to putting up such tiny shop sometimes distracts my attention. In the end taste is all that matters, in life as in food.