R V N S Vol. 1 Food & Wine & Life

Food and wine are part of a continuum that begins in the field. Picture vineyards alongside olive groves, vegetable patches, and livestock. What is cultivated in this landscape ends up at the table with a shared origin and purpose. The flavors emerging from this common source complement each other, amplifying perception and enjoyment.

The small, domestic farms that I visited in Italy and France (such as at the Manetti family's property in Chianti, above) were captivating and influenced how I cook and eat. Patchwork fields - culinary gardens, vineyards, orchards - yielding produce, cheese, wine, eggs, meat, for daily life and personal consumption. What proved especially inspiring was how beautifully they would culminate at the table. The resulting simplicity, purity, and honesty was transformative. Dishes with few ingredients, wines with minimal processing, let the essence of the site emerge with a wondrous transparency and resonance.

Culture and Agriculture; Food and Wine; these have been organically intertwined throughout human history. Paying attention to food and wine is vitalizing - it is taking the time to appreciate the senses, to engage with others, to embrace the glories of nature aligned with human creation.

Art comes in myriad expressions: from old masters to contemporary artists, from historic cultural artifacts to children's drawings, each piece reveals the mark of an individual in a particular location and era, influenced by their cultural environment. Wine flows in a like fashion - it is a creation that captures a place in time, guided by the human hand.

This journal, RVNS (Ravenous), will focus on enriching our lives, appreciating natural pleasures and beauty through the lens of culture, food, and wine. Hopefully the content will generate incentive to cook, to pull corks, to honor our landscapes, and to share pleasures of the table with loved ones. In the end, these sensorial pleasures are simply means to enhance how we live. We actually seek something that floats above the sensory input - something elevating, galvanizing; in short, the communing that happens at the table, charged by nature's bounty.

These moments should not be confined to holiday seasons. The more they become weekly, or even quotidian, experiences, the more richness and vitality we infuse into our lives. When they feel pure and authentic, we are moved and their memories are cherished.
It is why these moments at the table matter immensely - they both keep us human and keep us connected, to ourselves and to nature. Without these grounding, timeless occasions, we become poor, both in the social sense, and in our physical health.
The shared moments at the table activate gratitude for life - lived reminders to treasure our short time on earth.