LOCK
KEY
Knowing how to begin and how to end anything (for me) takes time. Or rather...timing.
Timing is riddled with imperfection, whereas time is constant, always there, perpetual, sure in tempo, the rhythm of the universe. Timing is fate...or rather, fated.
Time is always measured, it seems, by looking up. In my world, time reveals itself on the ground, thru seasons, thru migrations, thru ritual.
The mathematical expression of things is where we are always led.
This work is a way to measure time thru timing. The perfect with the imperfect. It's how I seem to stumble thru life. A series of misadventures and glorious happenchance. All, with food at the heart and soul of it. Without the alchemy of nourishment as the nugget, I would have been and would be lost.
In the way that Chateau Figeac best expresses a St. Emillion Bordeaux perfectly, or Brillat Savarin a triple créme, or the black-footed pig the breed of choice for Bayonne ham, the Tasting Room at Poor Orphan is an authentic expression of myself.
For years, I could not imagine how to undo what I had done. Then, when the timing was right, I understood. I went from an image of pulling a thread and seeing something unravel to simply inserting my key into the door and locking it. It was as simple as that, when the time was right. Reflecting on the years of epic wonderment, creating it from the ground up, made me smile because of the simplicity, its authenticity, and the revelation of timing.
I was able to seal time indefinitely until I knew what would feel right, not quite knowing how to preserve its life, its memory in some way. And, not only for me. It is a thing of its own making for which I was simply the docent. A role that I was perhaps destined to have and can only hope to pay forward.
It is a vision-driven life built for and around food, knowingly and unknowingly, wittingly and unwitting. It's a story worth sharing about gatherings, making memory, and fodder for the soul.
Halfway between the bend and the river you'll find The Tasting Room, an intimate gathering place where food becomes memory and wine the conversation.
