Part of the excerpt on his tryout at The French Laundry with Thomas Keller,

I entered the French Laundry kitchen and saw a tall lanky man sweeping the floor. His back was toward me and he didn’t hear me enter, so he kept doing his job for a few seconds. I peered past him looking for chef Keller, waited a few seconds for the sweeper to notice me, and when he didn’t, approached him. “I’m Grant Achatz, here for a tryout. Is chef Keller in?”

“Yeah. That’s me,” he said, letting out a laugh. “You’re early, Grant.”

He stuck out his hand and shook mine vigorously with an exaggerated up and down motion.

I thought to myself, “Holy shit. He’s the first one here, and he’s sweeping the floor. What kind of restaurant is this?”

Joe never wanted a restaurant; he wanted money and became a Wall Street trader, only to discover he hated it. He recalls waiting for his first bonus, counting the minutes, cashing it, and returning to the office to resign on the spot: the he went straight to JFK and bought a ticket to Trieste. He remained there a year, living out of a Volkswagen bus, working for chefs and winemakers, needing to understand this thing that, he now appreciated, was going to be his life.

Best sentence I read in Heat. At a different point of my life, I think I could have been Joe.

There is no model swing in this business, no pat answers. Each person must develop a blueprint for his swing and style of play. He must have such a conviction for the manner in which it is done that there are no chinks in the armor when facing the toughest foe on tour. The toughest challenge you will face is not necessarily the golf course, or even your competitor’s scores. Your toughest foe will be the casual comment offered up by a fellow player or teacher about how you should be doing it. When I ask you about any part of your game, I want a solid answer, and I want to hear conviction in your voice. If you don’t have a solid answer, I’ll send you to the oak to write about it. I deeply believe that in writing our thoughts unseen wisdom rises to the occasion. I am not here to improve your swing; my purpose is to help you find your game. That is exactly what I intend to do.

– Golf’s Sacred Journey

Take a single crop: the radish. We had eaten the baby greens, then the radish root itself, boiled the later greens for stock, tossed the flowers in salads, enjoyed the young seedpods as a hot, crunchy snack in early fall. Our inability to feed the world is not an agricultural failure; it is a failure both of imagination and of kindness.

An excerpt from Plenty (2 and a half pickles out of 5, if you want my review) that touches on how much use we can get from a single food. It takes creativity and resourcefulness, two qualities that don’t get enough attention when it comes to preparing a (great) meal.

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

Hoping to add Infinite Jest soon. And, maybe Edward Tufte’s books and/or something by Michael Lewis?