Join me for my next live video in the Substack app! Friends and fellow Kneaders, I’ll be going live more than any of us realize. Get the free app and join me and others on here. Plus, it’s a good way to find social media that dives a little deeper than most of them out there.
Dear Kneaders,
In this live video I am seated in my car, my back to the Atlantic ocean and some blue skies. Pull up with a cup of your favorite beverage and join me as we slough off the winter energy and keep this week’s conversation on comfort food moving into new territory: intimacy.
How does intimacy fit into comfort food? How doesn’t it. How does that fit into conscious consumption? In every possible way. Need an example? Just take a gander at Los Angeles chef Evan Funke. Last fall Netflix launched their Chef’s Table series into the world of noodles and if you’re slow like me, you still need to see it. Don’t wait.
In a world where machines seem. to be ready to take over all the best parts of being human, watching Chef Funke stretch and shape pasta is a reminder of what we humans can do. It’s a deep dive into cuisine and into relationships. Every single plate of Funke’s pasta is a link to food history and this chef takes these links very seriously.
Join Evan in his healthy masculinity.
Join Evan as he gets his very own specialty “mattarello” or rolling pin to rubes like me. Follow him as he travels with his rolling pin into the lives of women who have been holding down pasta traditions that date back centuries. Feel the tension in all their hands as they roll and press dough into plates of pasta that machines can’t make. Lean into that intimacy that starts and ends with people. It’s a great trip, and you won’t regret it. You might even get a little teary-eyed like I did.
If rifling through a cookbook by Tom Colicchio started us off this week thinking about comfort food as memory food, and if our surprise visit with food photographer Andrew Scrivani gave us emotional food, then Evan Funke draws us into this profound intimacy that can make food something not merely special or exclusive, but truly moving.
OK, go watch the video! Go watch the Netflix!
Oh, don’t have Netflix? OK, you can watch this video on YouTube to get a taste. It won’t have exactly the same luxurious cinematography that is Chef’s Table’s signature, but it’s still very good.
This video’s beverage - I mention I am drinking roasted dandelion root in my cup. If you’re not familiar with dandelions except as weeds, they are so much more. Spring is the season for gentle detoxing, the time to mimic the great melting of nature’s icy realms by drinking cleansing teas and soups. If you want to learn more about flushing out the sluggish winter feelings, drop a comment and we’ll go deeper!
To learn more about Evan and his restaurants visit his site.
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