Last evening after dinner, Sensei and the Monks sat on the cold moonlit terrace. Sensei told them an interesting story –
“There was this famous food critic. He was known for his absolute devotion to the taste and appearance of the food and nothing else. He did not care about the ambience of the restaurant. He was a purist and had made food his religion.
Restaurant owners loved him and hated him. His review could make or break them.
He was beyond bribes and influence. Most of the time he found fault with what he ate. This man also had a poetic side. When he described food, he would add a bit of poetic narration to it.
Once, he found the spaghetti he ate in a restaurant so long and tasteless, he called it ‘Rapunzel’s hair – fit for wearing, not for eating’.
In another restaurant, the food portions were so small, he could not taste anything. He wrote ‘The restaurant and its helpings would make Shylock squirm in shame.’
When he loved something, he was equally eloquent. For a new wine he wrote, ‘I drank poetry in motion. It lit up my heart, and warmed my soul.’
Simply said, this food critic was a man in control of his own destiny.”
Sensei paused, clapped twice and continued – “A new restaurant owner had a new approach to food. His marketing strategy made him confident about getting the food critic’s approval on day one itself.
The restaurant was called ‘Just like Home’. The concept was to get actual families to serve their family food to patrons. The restaurant only warmed and served the food that came from families who wanted to showcase their home style cooking and earn a nice livelihood on the side.
On the inaugural day, the food critic was invited to eat at the restaurant. The trick the restaurant owner had up his sleeve was that he had invited the entire family of the food critic to present their food! His wife, cousins and the extended family were all presenting their typical home food. The restaurant owner was sure that the food critic would not criticize his own family’s food!
The food critic sat down to eat and tasted everything. He wrote his notes and left. The next day the review said, “For the first time I ate emotions garnished with food. A mother’s flowing love was the curry; a wife’s multilayered goodness was the lasagne and a father’s sincere wishes was the bitter chocolate. This place serves the palate via the heart…”
Sensei clapped three times and said, “When you are pure in your pursuit, you are gifted a special perception – to find love in the mundane – then it does not matter what you do.”
*****
