It's All About Family

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Today I met Thomas Keller.  Originally, Joel wanted to go to the book signing at the State Street Borders, but alas, work called.  There I was, waiting anxiously with a brand new copy of Ad Hoc at Home sitting on my lap, listening to the people behind me talk about Food Network stars when he appeared as if by magic.  He looks just like he does on television.

Before the signing, Chef Keller talked a little bit about Ad Hoc and about the cookbook.  Keller is a world-renowned chef and culinary rock star, but there he sat on the signing table, telling us how he wrote an April Fool's email a few years ago and suddenly had a successful restaurant. It was surreal, to say the least.

Ad Hoc is all about family style meals.  There is no menu there.  You get what the chefs want to cook and that's that.  There is a freedom in that kind of dining, you know.  It's reminiscent of coming home from school and finding out meatloaf was what you were having, and then being happy about that.  I like that Keller is able to take American cuisine to its highest heights with Michelin stars and all that, and also be able to be real about food and what it means, because for most of us, food means family, and gathering, and sharing time together.

I cannot wait to get started on the recipes in the cookbook.  I know that some of them will be out of my grasp, and I know that others will be similar to things I've made before.  No matter what, I'm excited to think about food as a family occasion and take pleasure in the transformation from raw ingredients to beautiful meals.

I got my cookbook signed, inscribed for Joel.  Chef Keller writes it in a beautifully, curly script with a special pen.  Just like his food, it is beautiful, but the inscription contains a message that would be the same if scribbled in crayon: "It's all about family."

Indeed.