Hello Supper Club Friends, I hope you're feasting away on your dinners we delivered for tonight. I'm especially happy because we all get to have Ethiopian/Eritrean food tonight, too. I even set Chef Mary up with some so we all can be happy and sweaty at the same meal. As you may have guessed, next week's menu is live and ready for you choose which days you want freshly-made deliciousness to arrive instead of staring down your pantry/fridge trying to decide what to spend your precious time making. Plan in advance now from all the great options HERE, and use your extra time to relax. Which options will you choose this time?
EVERYWHERE I GO I SEE DALE CHIHULY
You don't know this, but I come from a glass family. My grandparents collected and wrote the books (plural, three of them) on glass salt & pepper shakers, and my step-father is Roger Vines. Now, if I said "Dale Chihuly" you'd probably know at least some of his work, but Roger is also a glassblower like Chihuly, yet unlike Mr. Chihuly, Vines is merely almost famous.
At the Bellagio in Vegas, you can find a huge glass installation by Chihuly. In fact, everywhere you go you can probably find some chili-pepper-angel-cherub glass thing by the Pacific Northwest's most famous glass blower. One time I was in Switzerland at a job site and this particular customer had a LOT of art in their halls and as I was walking into the building I saw the distinct chili-peppery cheruby work characteristic of Dale inside the center of the turnstile door. Everywhere you go, you can probably find some Chihuly, like at the MOMA or the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, I was at my accountant's office last month and that guy is collecting blankets that Chihuly is making now. Everywhere I go, I see Dale Chihuly.
When we were up in Oregon, Roger had installed a new display that highlighted some of his most famous pieces. One of them is the sister piece to the work he has in the Smithsonian Museum--it is part of the permanent collection in the Renwick Gallery. Have a look see:
I did a lot of work in the factory growing up, and also helped sell the glass to galleries at wholesale shows. Just one quick search on Ebay and you'll see tons of Roger's work. We sold, literally, millions of dollars worth of glass. I personally did a lot of the cold work when I was teenager. So it's kind of a family thing were we go, how did Dale end up so famous and Roger didn't? Roger (who is 80 years old, now) is working on his memoir to "set the glassblowing record straight."
He told me some of the industry intrigue and how some of the guys claimed his techniques were theirs. I told him I'd help him publish the book when he gets it done. None of us are big mad Roger is only almost famous--we've had a nice life. I love that both my daughters really look up to to their artist grandfather. I also like to tell people I have "museum quality works" in my home. Good luck figuring out which ones I got at Homegoods for $10 and which ones are Roger's and which ones are my brother's and which ones are my sister-in-law's work. Like fashion, art is so subjective. And to be clear, I do not own any Chihuly cherubs or chili peppers, but it might look like it when you're in my garden.
Mostly, the chili peppers I work with are the edible kind. The closest I've come to fame in the cooking world is I was scouted by Gordon Ramsay's "Next Level Chef." I didn't get selected, but I realized just being scouted made me feel good about the work I am doing because someone on the team of the most famous chef in the world noticed me out of the piles and piles of chefs there are in the world. So, my stepfather is almost famous, and I'm even less almost famous, but thought you'd like to know in case you needs some bragging rights about your dinner:
Honestly, I am honored I get to keep doing this work. I've never cared much about fame, but it was interesting to be approached. Those shows are so stressful, but there is a time element that Chef Mary & I deal with every day. We do not have the luxury of anything going really sideways--there is little back-up and delivery time looms every day, so we do know how to bust a move. And we are at the ready to make more wonderful meals for you and your families because that is what we love.
We can't wait to serve you.
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