Adventures #47: What's cookin'?
You’ve probably been cooking more than usual during the last few months. I know I have.
In April there were a flurry of new recipes and combinations to try, plus gadgets aplenty. Our compact Manhattan apartment became a culinary lab of stocks, confits and other concoctions.
Then, the fatigue kicked in, and food became functional; a laboured punctuation point every few hours.
This Summer, New York embraced outdoor restaurant dining; a delightful new dimension that carried into a bright and breezy Autumn.
Now, Winter’s rolling into town, and more change is in the air.
Food always feels prominent at this time of year. But beyond the annual festive occasions with clear culinary connections, food feels especially important this time around.
And there’s tension...
Brooklyn or Bezos
As the cold comes, restaurants’ outdoor setups are bulking up with heaters, walls, and decorative accoutrements. There’s even indoor space on offer.
Ostensibly it’s a mini winter wonderland, but as reality bites will customers instead choose to hunker down and box in?
Meanwhile, the Amazon boxes (many containing kitchen gadgets, no doubt) pile up on the stoops, and ‘Shop Brooklyn, Not Bezos’ posters are plastered prominently around the neighborhood.
There’s tension. Big/Small. Hot/Cold. Convenience/Commitment. Boxed In/Boxed Out.
Small businesses everywhere are feeling the tension, but perhaps the hospitality industry is experiencing it more than any other.
And the tension seems strongest around food.
Don’t get me wrong - almost every part of the hospitality industry is hurting, but there’s something about food’s visceral and vital nature. Perhaps the tension is made stronger still by restaurants remaining visible while many of the industry’s other players are forced to hibernate.
But tension isn’t all bad. Tension fosters innovation.
Mi Casa, Su Casa
Three blocks up the street is our favourite local restaurant spot; Colonia Verde.
Like some other forward-thinking food purveyors, they’ve diversified over the past few months. At the heart of their plan is community. Coming off the back of existing programs like their Sunday Asado gatherings, they’ve created CASA - offering ingredients, meal kits and oven-ready delights tailored to the local patrons of their place. All the best bits, in the comfort of your kitchen.
It still tense, though. They even said so in an email they sent to customers this week. They’re still figuring it out; building the plane as they fly it. The business model is far from straightforward.
Where there’s tension, there’s innovation.
And where there’s innovation, there’s tension.
There’s no easy solution to all this. No way to level the playing field in a way that everyone can play - and win.
What I can offer though is this: food matters. And its value goes far beyond providing sustenance.
There’s the ritual of the mise-en-place; an experiment with a new ingredient; the act of conjuring something from seemingly nothing; or simply supporting a local business.
And whether it’s a treat at that great local restaurant, a quick homemade dinner, or volunteering time and energy to those who need it most, one thing matters most of all: connection.
It’s an opportunity to come together. Converse. Break bread. To ask ‘what’s cookin’?’.
Food is a way for a community - however small, stretched, or scattered they feel right now - to come together.
And no matter the sector, the businesses that will succeed in what’s coming next will find ways to do the same.
Thank you for giving me a slice of your valuable attention, and as always I’d love to know what’s cookin’ with you. Just hit reply.
Howard
Career Fuel
18 elements of the Zoom Revolution (remix)
Seth Godin’s podcast from a couple of weeks ago had a bunch of interesting ideas on how Zoom will change the way we work. Here’s a remix I put together; unauthorised, white-label only.
Workshops as Mixtapes, Teachers as DJs [podcast]
The arts of DJing and workshop creation are very much connected. What could workshop facilitators learn from making mixtapes? How can you apply the makings of a good warmup set into teaching? Are teachers the next superstar DJs?
Here’s me on the Workshops.Work podcast, talking all things workshop creation and DJing. I know, I often stretch metaphors, but this one really works. Check it out >
Also: A long-form piece on Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, covering his leadership style, time management, and decision making
Learning <> Doing
What is Masterclass actually selling?
A ticket to ‘the answer’. Except the answer doesn’t exist. There is no answer; no secret to success. No multiple choice tickbox.
Instead, it’s “a platform for dispensing assorted self-help and personal-development bonbons for the young capitalist striver”. The bonbons sure taste good, but they’re only a small part of a (balanced) diet.
The main food group missing here is the pedagogy. And when I say 'pedagogy, I don’t just mean content and curriculum design, but also facilitation - knowing how to see people and create space for them to develop their work and ideas. It’s not realistic to expect Masterclass guests to be great teachers, but if you’re promising something more than a sugary rush then you have to find other ways of delivering the pedagogy.
I also have some strong feelings about ‘edutainment’, but that’s for next time ;)
Opportunity for Adventure: I'm working on it right now - take a look ;)
Also: Edtech’s Answer to Remote Learning Burnout: I’m a bit wary of the heavy libertarian stance here (it is a VC firm blog post after all), but some good food for thought on trends in remote learning.
Media & Entertainment
Audio’s opportunity and who will capture it: When it comes to writing about media, music, gaming and entertainment, Matthew Ball is hard to beat. Here’s another deep dive - this time into the future of audio and music.
Opportunity for Adventure: Utilising platforms like Unreal in the creation of new spaces to produce and experience music and audio (not just concerts)
The (not failing) New York Times: a comprehensive slide deck outlining how the NYT rode the waves of the digital media revolution. Lots of interesting stuff here, just beware the survivorship bias… history is always written by the victors.
Culture
Astor Hair closes. Another thread of a city’s fabric is snipped away. In cruel irony, I heard this news as I was getting my first NYC haircut at a different salon (which was double the price and half as good). I loved Astor Hair so much I made a podcast about it.
Museum of Youth Culture: This is an incredible resource: a huge library of photography documenting UK youth culture throughout the last century. I sense plenty of opportunity for adventure around this topic…
Creativity is dead, long live curation: Ok, the title is pure clickbait, but there’s some interesting stuff happening in the fashion world that may mushroom out elsewhere. And besides, this entire newsletter is curated, so naturally I’m bullish on this trend :)
Jukebox
Laurent Garnier in The Alps
When it comes to culinary excellence, France is right up there. And if DJs are chefs, Laurent Garnier holds multiple Michelin stars (ok, I’ll stop the food metaphors now).
I also referenced Garnier in the workshop podcast (above) because of his ability to switch between masterful smooth mixing and highly contrasting, almost incongruent styles. Here’s a wonderful 4 hour mixtape that highlights those skills.
There are 1930s French spoken word tracks; 70s Brazilian cuts; reggae; house; techno; and much more. I’m always in awe of those who can cover such depth and breadth simultaneously.
Also: here’s a great little 7-tracker from a new(ish) artist called Al Pagoda. Thanks to my sibling Murray F. Gray for putting this my way.
Footnotes
A few other things I’ve been up to this month:
Cooking (as you may have guessed). The Turkish Eggs were the highlight.
Slowly improving my skills in giving feedback on creative work
Procrastinating on the new podcast (but it’s happening!)
Finally abandoning plans to go back to the UK for Christmas :-/
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