Welcome to the Chef’s Table

Owen Stevens
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

Hayley and I are addicted to the Netflix series Chefs Table. Each of the six episodes features a world renowned chef. Whilst coming from very different traditions and backgrounds they have one thing in common. All have mastered the art of producing extraordinary and in many cases improbably complex dishes. Given that it would require a girthsome bank account to sit at these particular chef’s tables we wondered; if we could choose two to add to that bucket list of things we’ll probably never do, which would they be?

We decided the first would be Massimo Bottura’s, Osteria Francescana, whose signature dish is an ingenious combination of accidentally dropped tart and artistic improvisation. On witnessing the accident — the tart was the last on the menu — Bottura, asked the stricken chef to see it not as a mistake but a work of art. Having reframed the mishap - think Jackson Pollock but edible - ‘Oops! I dropped the lemon tart’,* made it, not into the waste bin, but onto the menu of one of the world’s best restaurants. The second, but perhaps in the end our favourite, if push came to shove, was Enrique Olvera’s, Pujol. Intriguingly the signature dish at the Pujol is not strictly speaking a dish but that most ubiquitous of Mexican sauces, ‘mole’ with a twist.

While both chef’s share a flair for the improvisational it is Olvera’s, Mole Madre that breaks almost every conventional culinary code. At the Pujol, the Mole Madre you taste on a Tuesday will not be the Mole Madre you taste on a Wednesday or any other day. The dishes success relies not on the chefs ability to follow the recipe but to follow the dish. Other than the ingredients, which are indigenous and locally produced, there is no prescribed palette of ingredients to choose from.

With Mole Madre the traditional role of chef, that of architect and builder, is transformed into something more akin to that of guardian. To those who are acustomed to following the cultural convention of following the rules and getting ‘it’ right this might look like a recipe for chaos. However a closer look reveals that Olvera’s Mole Madre has its own language. One which reframes the relationship between chef and dish, and in doing so provides us with the perfect metaphor for growing and nurturing deliciously daring relationships.

At heart Mole Madre, is a relational dish, recursive in nature and enfolded within an infinite number of recursive systems that are at once autonomous and related: or to put it another way; it is the most perfect example of second-generation cybernetics as you are ever likely to eat. The autonomous systems: the regions climate, geography, socioeconomic history and the raw ingredients combined with the chefs personal histories produces a dish whose emergent complexities cannot be traced back to a single controlling source. ‘’The only thing we know’, says Olvera, ‘is that the seasons and the mole’s attitude on the day in question are going to determine the preparation.” The result is a dish that is endlessly surprising.

Like the best of relationships, the ones that feed us and help us to grow as individuals and as couples, Mole Madre does not strive for consistency, follow the rules or indulge in change for change sake. It is not some ‘thing’ to be controlled and shaped but rather something to be respected as a living entity. It is at once independent and dependent on those responsible for its ongoing development. “I think,” says Olvera, “it’s beautiful to have something that we have nurtured for these past few years and will continue to nurture in the years to come. It’s like a tree branching out in many directions we could never have imagined.”

Listening to Olvera speak about that most humble of Mexican ingredients corn, of which Mexico has 50 different indigenous varieties, I am struck not so much by Olvera’s culinary expertise, but by his sense of awe and wonderment. For Olvera corn is far more than a staple ingredient of mole. Its history intricately interwoven with the country’s culture and people; it is a sociological roadmap to Mexico’s past and its future.

Held within an ecological rather than a culinary context, Mole Madre looks both infinitely vast and infinitely small. Its continuing development and maturation embodies the greatest and most daring adventures of all. One which requires daring because mystery cannot be reduced into a theory with its constituent parts. Loving because relationships, offer no guarantees. Like the finest of dishes it unfolds in the cooking and refuses to be explained.

* Brent J. Atkinson Ph.D. Anthony W. Heath. Ph.D
Further thoughts on Second-Order Family Therapy
Family Process Vol. 29, June, 1990

Silk House

Threads pulled and followed to wherever they might take us.

Owen Stevens

Written by

Freelance Writer

Silk House

Threads pulled and followed to wherever they might take us.

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