I like you very much just as you are
I was promoting The Accidental Chef at a special event at Chapters-Indigo book store in Ottawa with several great local authors. I shared a table with Anne DesBrisay who was promoting Ottawa Cooks.
Anne has enjoyed and written about my food for ages but I never met her before because she was incognito as a reviewer, critic, and judge. I always appreciated that she got me and my food. It has meant a lot to me.
When I opened ZenKitchen restaurant many moons ago, I never wanted to label my food as vegan because I’ve always believed good food is good food no matter what it is. I wanted my food to stand on its own as beautiful and delicious.
My goal was to elevate veg food to be more sexy and sophisticated. Most of all, I was curious to see if people could taste the difference of food made with love and care.
It’s a wonderful feeling to have people in your life that get you and like you as you are. I love that line in Bridget Jones Diary when Darcy (Colin Firth) says to Bridget(Renée Zellweger), “I like you very much just as you are.”
Call me a romantic but it always makes me swoon, not only for Colin Firth but for the fact that Darcy appreciates Bridget for the way she is, no changes, no makeover.
He loves her because of who she is, human imperfections and all.
I’ve found that there are many people who say they love and care about you but want you to live according to their view of the world and live up to their expectations of you.
This is a recipe for failure because no one is happy and no one wins.
I can never live up to their expectations of me and I am not happy living up to their expectations of me because it’s quite simple.
I am me.
Even if I do meet their expectation,the game sucks because they have another expectation for me that I may or may not live up to.
I have been guilty of playing this game for a long time where you never win!
What if I refuse to play this game and create my own?
When I won the silver medal at the culinary Gold Medal Plates, where Anne was a judge by the way, my staff told me that they heard other chefs saying that I didn’t deserve to win because I was cooking vegetables and I didn’t even have any meat or fish in my dish! Well, the language was stronger than that but you get the drift.
I knew my dish was great, I had perfected it for a long time, but I didn’t know how it compared to the other top chefs in the city.
In the end, it was the team of prestigious judges, including Anne, who reviewed and compared my dish to the other nine competitors and awarded me the silver medal.
I continue to build my tribe of people who get me as I am.
I have begun to understand that it may not be those closest to us and those who say that say they love us.
When we stand with our tribe, and it may be only a few people to start as was the case for me, who like us very much just as we are, that’s when the magic happens.
We begin to be who we truly are without thinking we have to try harder or be better. We reveal the unique gifts we have been given to share with the world.
The magic doesn’t die within us but is released to create more magic.
Here’s the clip if you want to have a taste of feel good, and who doesn’t?
I’m a lover of food, travel and life, in search of new taste memories and stories that connect us. My new book The Accidental Chef: Lessons Learned In and Out of the Kitchen is now available on Amazon.
