I got to have dinner with a chef the other night. It was fun to see a completely different perspective on food, its taste and presentation — all the stuff you take for granted after awhile. It was kind of like sitting next to a director while watching a movie. You just know this person is going to see things in a different way because of their relationship to their trade.

At one point he said, “food really only needs two main ingredients.”

Besides bacon and…? “And those would be?”

“Salt and love.”

OK I’m intrigued. “Love, you say? So, I’m curious, how do you put love into a dish?”

I’m paraphrasing now but his answer was about infusing intent and purpose while  preparing the food; cutting the little eyes out of the potatoes and making sure it gets chopped into even cubes.  And it made me think about how simple and complex the ingredient of “love” is because it’s energy, it’s something that gets added in its own unique way to everything. If you think about it, as human beings, we all inherently have this ingredient. It’s part of our own unique, personal branding.

Now, about that dash of salt…