How Do I Write An Addendum

Thomas Keller on Creativity and Casual vs Fine Dining

Let's start by talking about your new projects. First, Addendum: It is an extension of a restaurant. It began to be a chicken shack and turned it into an addendum to keep the same theme as Ad Hoc. We will have a picnic fundamentally, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11:30 or noon until we missed. We have a beautiful garden behind ad hoc, so that we renovated what was a historic warehouse in the addendum.

And Bouchon Bakery in Los Angeles? We are opening a Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills. We made all our bakeries with caps now he has become an expected element of cap.We did it in Las Vegas and Time Warner, and now Los Angeles. Probably the smallest of the bakeries we have.

And the cookbook Bouchon Bakery: As we look into the early fall and it will probably be released in October 2012. It follows the same spirit of the bakery that really turns around the point of view of a child. The bakery of me has always been a point of wonder for children. There are bread and goodies all on screen, so the book will somehow come from the perspective of children.

These days there seems to be a trend toward casual dining.Leaders, including yourself, develop their concepts more relaxed. Do you think that you will open a new gourmet restaurant? I think it's a case of selective memory. Casual dining restaurants have always existed. I disagree wholeheartedly that there are now more casual restaurants. There is the same spectrum of restaurants there was always the point of view of the head.

I am really unique to have two fine restaurants on each coast. These days, gourmet restaurants are different now than the last generation because they have become restaurants personality. You don't go to a French restaurant, you go to a Jean-Georges restaurant. So it's difficult to have more than one personality restaurant.

The effort's the same. The standards at the French Laundry and Per Se are the same standards at Bouchon, same standards at Ad Hoc. The standards don't change. That's what I think is a misconception these days. It's just as hard to put the effort into Bouchon as it is at the French Laundry. The quality of the food, the standards of the food are the same. So are the expectations that I have for the cleanliness, the organization, the efficiency, the training, the hiring. All those things. It can't change. Why would you want it to change? We have certain standards that we maintain. Just because at the French Laundry we serve the rack of lamb, Bouchon serves the leg of lamb, and Ad Hoc serves the shoulder of lamb doesn't mean that the quality of the lamb is any different. It all comes from the same producer. Same quality there, just a different cut, different price.

An Addendum « The Digital Self-Representation of Daniel Lui

It may have been. But these are real thoughts that bounce around in any person’s head in cross cultural interactions (they call it red-lining in InterVarsity missions training, read about it here ). What I was trying to capture was my “red-line” posture, in which I approach differences negatively. Now, just because it is common or “real” doesn’t make my rant very right. I should have put in a clear disclaimer that my posture was not a good one (And I do write later how God had to change my posture), and perhaps didn’t need to put all the details of my thoughts there. But this is the type of “red-lining” that I have to guard my heart against each day when I’m in North County- a culture that is not my own, but God has called me to make my own. That’s a huge part of missions- making the decision not to approach differences badly and to see and call out the created beauty within the culture we are called to. When we stop seeing the beauty, we fail the mission of missions.

2. Was I making too many generalities about cultures? Yes and no. Yes in that culture is full of generality- in fact, it’s not about the individual, but the collectivized and generalized actions of many individuals. But culture is slippery. It’s hard to pin down what is Asian culture, white culture, black culture, Latino culture, etc… The descriptions of white culture and Asian culture I had were synthesized from my own personal experiences that constructed specific schema for me to operate out of and assume out of. See, that’s the thing- culture is not only the actions and ideas of the group, but the perceptions of the observing individual. And then let’s not forget the unique and anomalous decisions of individuals which will always aberrate from the constructed assumptions (from within and outside) of that culture. Actually the point of the previous entry was to point out that things are easy to hate and be annoyed at (or on the flip-side have a very ignorant type of paternalistic love for) when we refuse to see the nuanced individual aberrations from culture and just pure surprises when we actually take time to get to know the individuals of a different culture.