What you are seeing before your very eyes is a Deep Fried Strawberry that is about to be dipped in a Rich Chocolate Dipping Sauce.
As you can see from the photo. This is no ordinary strawberry. It’s been lovingly prepared, to not only taste beautiful, but looks amazing.
For me, this is true inspiration.
You see, personally, I have been on quite a journey recently. I am trying to become more of an expert when it comes to food, which is one of my favorite topics! I don’t want to be just interested in tasty food, disregarding health and nutrition. I believe that when it comes to food culture, at the moment, there is an imbalance and I think that with some habit changes it can be easily fixed.
One of the areas I have been researching a lot, recently, is Japanese food culture. You see, the Japanese have some of the lowest obesity and heart disease rates in the world. I figure that they must be doing something right.
One observation that has been made, amongst many, is the fact that Japanese food almost always looks stunning.
The theory is that this allows the Japanese to eat with their eyes. This means, spending longer eating, taking the time to enjoy their food, and therefore, being able to serve and eat less.
So, I have been thinking a lot about making my food look more beautiful. The image below was my first attempt at making a pretty looking meal, after doing some of my initial Japanese food culture research:
So where am I going with all this? Well, that beautiful strawberry, I can’t ever imagine being able to make food so pretty, but seeing that beautiful craftsmanship has make me really determined to up my game.
You see, without benchmarks, what would we do? What would we strive towards?
As creatives, we should be keeping a very close eye on those who are doing amazing work in the same field as us. It should provide us with the inspiration and drive to strive and do better. To be as good as the experts, and in fact, do better.
Shouldn’t be striving to be the best in our field?
Don’t lock yourself away, look around at what others are doing. Admire their greatness. Then make a plan to be as awesome as them and eventually, blow them out of the water.
Strive for excellence.
Lou says
Amen to striving for the best!
Whether it comes to food, art, athletics, blogging, and life striving for the best enlivens us with a sense of purpose. Thankfully, Christ gave us the ultimate benchmark in the Bible for striving for the best in this life.
Those strawberries are beautiful! They look straight out of a page from Food and Wine Magazine. 🙂
James Brooks says
Amen indeed! 🙂
Christy Broxton says
Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it. I was shocked to see this photo in your post because I work for the person who posted this on babble. We go way back — friends since Junior High in Italy.
She, too, has been on a quest to excel in her profession and has spent many hours working on her presentation. Glad you found it inspiring!
Here’s the original post in case you are interested:
http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/05/09/deep-fried-strawberries-with-chocolate-dipping-sauce/
James Brooks says
Thanks for the link, I totally forgot to include it! What a crazy coincidence! Awesome stuff! 🙂
Dustin W. Stout says
I drooled on my keyboard a lil bit… thanks James.
But seriously, I am all about excellence and striving for it. I know that we will never be perfect, but to strive for excellence is what should continually propel us forward. The moment we settle for “okay” is the moment we begin to slowly deteriorate. It’s like food, if it’s not growing, it’s rotting.
“Quality communicates value.” A series idea I have for my blog. Thanks again James!
James Brooks says
I like this: “It’s like food, if it’s not growing, it’s rotting.”
Trevor says
“The theory is that this allows the Japanese to eat with their eyes. This means, spending longer eating, taking the time to enjoy their food, and therefore, being able to serve and eat less.”
I really like that statement.
James Brooks says
Me too…it’s nice 🙂