If you read this blog regularly, then you will notice that I haven’t been posting here very often lately. Well, there is a good reason for that. I’ve been very busy cooking (loads of private dinners here at the Nomad Chef this winter, in addition to all of the public ones) and editing my documentary film. I started shooting the film last March, a kind of road trip film with a lot of cooking and dancing and healing. You can read about the project here or here. The Nomad Chef went on the road for about three weeks and did a couple of dinners in Beverly Hills, one of the stops on this road trip. If you haven’t been to a dinner with us, this clip from the film will give you a feeling for what they are like. Although the house we rented for this dinner is much grander than our humble home in Holland Park, we have always have food, new people and dancing! … and very often we have live music! My son, the original Nomad Chef, passed the baton to me. But as I’ve learned, we are our own legacies. I think my son has somehow shown me that we both carried the seeds of traveling, cooking and dancing in our genes. I feel his invisible presence in all of the meals I cook.
Beginning the day before Thanksgiving and ending 30 days later, on December 23rd, I ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds necessary to finish the film. It was a tremendous success and I achieved my funding goal for this phase of the project. It reminded me of why I do the the Nomad Chef; I met strangers from all over the world who contributed to the making of this film. Many of these strangers, people who read this blog, contributed to the funding campaign! And for that I am so grateful!
The film is nearing completion. I think we are within weeks of having a final version. It is the short story of a woman who lost her son and only child set off on a journey to find happiness by taking a road trip and hosting pop-up supper clubs in distant lands. On her journey she met people in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, dreamers who had made their dreams come true. In Silicon Valley she met entrepreneurs who wore failure as a badge of honor. And in New York she found keys to the future in artifacts from the past.
A very long journey alone into the wilderness is typical of a native American vision quest. I’ve found that even when the journey is unplanned, it forces the seeker to look into his soul. Whether the journey through the desert lasts 40 days or, as in my own personal journey, one with no end in sight, the rituals are important. The ritual of sharing food with strangers on their own journeys is at the heart of what we do here at the Nomad Chef. Regardless of where you are in your personal journey, we invite you to share a meal and some of your stories with us.