Daily Archives: August 6, 2007
What’s your signature dish?
On my better days I fantasize about becoming a world famous chef. I love to cook! Truly it’s not a love of cooking as much as a love of people loving my cooking. There is something wonderfully delicious in watching friends ooh and aah over my culinary creations. Somewhere in my subconscious are the plans for my Food Network kitchen. I wouldn’t be a Rachel Ray whose current ambitions include world domination. No, I would be more like Ina Garten with the enviable home and understated class. Throw in the camera men from Everyday Italian and the palate of Giada de Laurentiis and that would be my show. Sigh … Back to reality.
Next week is the finale of Hell’s Kitchen, a show to which I am utterly addicted. I could never stand up to the brutal honesty of Chef Gordon Ramsay, but I think he’s a genius with food. Absolutely brilliant. And I love watching him challenge and mold young chefs into their full potential.
This is the third season. The format hasn’t changed much. A few of the challenges are different, but generally it’s the same show each summer with different contestants. In the first episode of each season, contestants are given thirty minutes to create their signature dish. This is their first impression with Chef Ramsay. In his words, it is them “on a plate.” That one dish is intended to showcase their special talents, their potential, their creativity … all that they have to offer him and his restaurant.
I can continue fantasizing about what dish I would prepare, but more importantly is what dish am I serving?
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” — Romans 12:1 (NIV)
We’re already serving something every single day to God and to others. What is our signature dish? Are we offering our best? Is it a taste of what we want to be known of us?
Eugene Petersen, in his paraphrase The Message, says it like this: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”
How are we doing? Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves. If we don’t like the dish we’ve been serving, we need to tweak it. Get rid of some of the bitterness. Add a little more salt, a little more sweet. May we serve a signature dish that truly is us on a plate, a living sacrifice to bring glory to our God.
Zach turned two!
I can hardly believe my baby is two. He has grown so much in just the last six months!! From scooting to running, babbling to talking up a storm. Here’s my little man on his big day (last Friday).
He wasn’t too sure about the candles. Grandpa had to blow them out. And he doesn’t like messy hands, so … face first works best!
As a sidenote, I was THRILLED to finally have an egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free cake recipe that actually TASTES like cake!! It’s been a trial getting something that’s not too “earthy.” This one one was pretty good. 
We also discovered that Pillsbury makes a Zach-friendly (allergen-free) frosting. Pretty cool. So … happy birthday, Zach-zach!
He wasn’t too sure about the candles. Grandpa had to blow them out. And he doesn’t like messy hands, so … face first works best!As a sidenote, I was THRILLED to finally have an egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free cake recipe that actually TASTES like cake!! It’s been a trial getting something that’s not too “earthy.” This one one was pretty good. We also discovered that Pillsbury makes a Zach-friendly (allergen-free) frosting. Pretty cool. So … happy birthday, Zach-zach!
