We exist to inspire—to tempt and to encourage you to experience food
I'm Allana: California native, business owner, creative director, and homegrown cook.
For years I've wanted to create a communal place built around the ritual of food—both cooking and eating.
We live in a time when it's all about just get to the food, put it in your body and forego all the pomp. I admit when I first started cooking for myself, I appreciated the "quick weeknight" recipes found in the pages of any magazine. You know..30 minutes meals (or less), utilitarian meals designed to do one thing...satisfy hunger.
Today, I actually enjoy the waiting (and the sweat and tears) involved with a seemingly long cooking process. It's like having front-row seats to the Evolution of A Feast; you're witnessing the transformation of food from it's raw, organic state into one capable of bringing you to gustatory heaven. I relish the four hours it takes to transform perfectly beautiful tomatoes and onions into a mouth-watering maestro worthy of flavor town. I love having to plan for a meal, sometimes weeks in advance, savoring the prelude of daily preparations before the big show...oh and it is a show.
These days I see little imagination or creativity amongst our priorities for a really great meal. Food has become an object and we tend to abuse it and abuse ourselves with it. It's all about SUPERSIZE...quantity for quality. We have sadly lost sight of the Soul of food. We don't have an "experience" of food, and so we eat too much. We don't value the role of food in our friendships and families, and so we tolerate the fast, unconscious, ungraceful ingestion of solids and liquids that just barely pass for dining.
I believe we should choose our food in accordance with our values, prepare it ourselves with love and attention, and present it with creativity and love. If you've read this far I'm kinda assuming that you may love to cook, but heh if not, then go to new amazing restaurants (hole in the walls can be just as amazing...just sayin), enjoy the food, participate where others cook, love and relish it as I do. It's then that we might just know the power of food to magically create a sense of familiarity coupled with entertainment and community! Everyone becomes a part of it.