Awhile back when I was surfing the channels for something in english to watch, I stumbled across this one episode of Gordon Ramsey in Master Chef. What really got my attention was the story of this one girl who created a dish for the judges. The judges could hear the passion in her voice but couldn't taste it in her dish. What had happened is that she at the amateur level that she was at had focused on the wrong thing. She was trying to do the fancy restaurant presentations of food and in the midst of it all had sacrificed flavor. She had thought that this is what the judges were looking for.
The judges knew they were all dealing with amateurs so they were never looking for restaurant presentation. They were looking for taste, passion, and flavor. In a bold move, instead of turning her down...Gordon Ramsey sends home and gives her 2 hrs to go back to her house and come back with ingredients to make another dish that really represents who she is.
As you know, in Canada and the U.S. we LOVE stories of 2nd chances. I am one who got another chance at life myself and I am making the best of it. Just like that girl, whenever you step out and do something different, you are bound to make mistakes and have misguided moments. There has been twice now that I was riding the bus in Buenos Aires to or from a location in the city that I had never been to before. And I actually mistakenly hopped off the bus when I was suppose to stay on. No problem! I just catch the next bus with the same number and pay another 1.10 pesos to finish my journey :)
In my last blogpost, I talked about the importance of not being a lone ranger and being willing to ask questions. You can travel solo but attempting to be a lone ranger is very unhealthy. Some of you may be looking at this beautiful blogsite and artful blogging as well as my ability to surf through life in a foreign country. But it is important to note that i didn't start off doing everything skillfully in each one of these areas. I slowly built up to skills over time and the truth is that any traveller who's made it or expats that reside abroad would tell you the same.
Gordon's Ramsey's whole point in his words to that girl was that it is the heart and soul of the dish that matters. All the fancy presentation in the world wasn't going to matter if they couldn't taste authenticity. People must be able to taste authenticity in all that you do. Yes, this blogsite has many fancy things on it now but the heart and soul of it is my writings. Same with my travels and my relationships with people here abroad. I can have fun, go to dinners and do things that look great and inspiring. But I must always remain committed to the heart and soul of why I am here and why I do what I do. As long as I live with passion, flavor, commitment and focus on people instead of looks and reputation....things will eventually work out that I end up looking good to others on the outside simply because I really am that good.
And thus my life gets presented to the world like a piece of culinary art that tastes as good as it looks. No smoke and mirrors....
