Food and arte

Sometimes life imitates art …someone said that, was it Oscar Wilde?

Regardless, back in the early days just starting out as a cook in New York, I went on an interview for a new hotel with a  well known chef. When called in, I nervously sat while the chef and his sous chef looked over my application and my fairly thin resume. The application was full of questions, daunting and somewhat non culinary. One literally asked: ” what is cooking?” Naturally I said it was an art, as I related the beauty of a dish like my father would describe color on his canvas. The chef looked sternly at my application and with no uncertain terms said, food is a trade, not an art! I didn’t get the job, but he didn’t fare well either, failing to make it in the city and ending up in Cleveland.

On my recent trip to Turkey I found Dilara Erbay my host combining art and food. All to say,  I wasn’t off on that application so long ago. I always remember my father telling me a story as we passed by an old farm house along a country road. According to my dad, it was a house  where he had once lived. It reminded him of a time as a young painter of having just enough money after paying his rent for either paints or some food. “What did you do?” I asked. He answered quickly. “I bought the paints, of course.”

I have always explained to people why I didn’t follow my dad’s profession, instead favoring the culinary field. In retrospect, it wasn’t about avoiding starvation as much as wanting to paint with the colors of food on a plate. When you think about it if my dad had not bought the paints, how would he then pay his bills? So what we do in life is what we love. Food and art are high on my list.

To remember my dad I want to steer you at some of the galleries that are showing his work, my art is here or is passing through someones palate as we speak…but I will show some of my minor efforts on canvas.