I've been thinking a lot lately about the professional quality of the food I produce. I got some professional feedback recently about dressing up my food, and clients often ask what my presentation is like. My training with Gabe drummed into me the ridiculousness of non-functional garnishes, and I took that to heart. The problem is that in the catering realm, non-functional garnishes are de rigueur. To get an idea of what I'm referring to, imagine a four-star Hawaiian hotel buffet where it looks like they chopped down all the nearest palm trees just to line the table and make the food look more substantial. Professionally I think this is unnecessary, and personally I'm appalled by the waste (there's already enough landfill created by the food industry).

But, nevertheless, the feedback was there and the urge remains. I don't think I'll ever go to the silly lengths of decorating the buffet line with whole fruits or anything, but I did start to think about my presentation. There is something to be said about thinking of the design of a platter, and I'll admit it's not something I've given a lot of thought to in the past. But I've been considering it a lot more now. And there is something very appealing to the eye about a platter full of canapes, creating a visual texture through the repeating elements.

I've also been watching myself battle back and forth between "perfect" and "good enough". One side of me truly believes that "good enough" is exactly that: I met the goal, everyone's satisfied, and it was "good enough". The problem is that "good enough" has a connotation that it actually means "not good enough", or "less than satisfactory". Incidentally, this is the sort of thinking that drove me from Microsoft!

And so, I always make sure that my food is good enough, meaning it's exactly what the client wanted and expected, and that they are completely satisfied with my services. But on the other hand, the martial artist and chef in me wants the food to be absolutely perfect for my own professional satisfaction. I'll admit as a business owner that this drive for perfection is expensive, especially when clients can't recognize what they're getting, but as a chef, I like the idea that my perfection can only be understood by professionals.

This drive for perfection runs very deep in both my martial arts and cooking, but it only gets expressed in my martial arts. I never ask "was that kick good enough?", I always ask "Is that the best I can do?" when I'm training, but it's just the opposite when I cook. To be clear, I never cut corners or serve crap food but I will admit in the heat of a deadline I often do less than my abolute best. Some would say that's ok, and that to do more than the client is paying for is pure ego, but others would say that at the end of the day I only have myself to please. I'm just not sure how I can reconcile the two in the kitchen.

So, I'll I continue to push myself and be disciplined about my quality and while also remembering that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Perhaps with more time and practice, my "good enough" will get closer and closer to "perfect".

Footnote

I can't remember where I read it, but there was a story about a master potter in ancient Japan that was so good his pots never sold. So he deliberately introduced flaws into his work to make them even more beautiful. That is definitely beyond my current skill level when it comes to cooking!

I've been meaning to write about this particular week for awhile now, but understandably it's take awhile for me to get around to it! I've been exhausted and it seems like it's taken two weeks to recover!

Between June 5 and June 10, Starry Nights served food for nearly 450 people, including 100 people at Google on Friday and a wedding for 160 guests on Saturday. We prepped so much food it felt like we were a big established catering company! I got a great vision of what Starry Nights will be like in a year or two, when we have jobs every day.

To get all this work done, I hired additional staff to help in the kitchen, as well as new waitstaff for the events. Things went smoothly from the clients' perspecitve, but I was pretty stressed out a several points as witnesses/employees/wife can attest. It's a good learning process for me as I try to manage people to my vision, and I think my biggest challenge is being able to articulate what's in my head and what needs to be done as fast as possible. The other lesson I'm trying to learn is to not change my mind or a person's assigned task too many times.

It was very rewarding at the end of this long week to think about all the food we served. Each client was happy with the result and we created many satisfied guests. I'm looking forward to repeat business from several of these jobs.

Starry Nights has been growing beyond my wildest expectations. I certainly don't want to jinx it by talking about it too much, but our fortune has been amazing so far! We must be doing something right! We're getting referrals from previous clients and phone calls out of the clear blue sky from people asking for catering and cakes. I have no idea where all these people are coming from, but it is great to think about how many people we've been able to work for.

When I look at the business and what we offer, I know our food is good and our clients really seem to like it, but I also think our growing success has to do with high quality customer service. This is such a simple concept to understand and relatively easy to follow through with, but apparently not every business does it. For me, great customer service is all based on a detailed tracking system of communication with clients (keeping a detailed log) and following up on a consistent and regular basis. That, combined with delivering things when I say I'm going to, and a maximum of 24 hour response time for emails and phone calls.

I have slipped up on this a couple times, and paid for it by losing the clients. Each time was a hard lesson to learn, but it simply reinforced for me what I need to do as a business owner to keep clients happy. I would say that providing quality customer service isn't really hard, it's just time-consuming, and maybe that's why other business let this slide. It takes a lot of dedication to keep following up with people who ignore me or don't respond, but it's definitely worth it when someone does thank me for checking in.

It's time to get back on the wagon, so to speak. I've been far too negligent in updating my blog, and I've missed it. I find that it's a good way to stay in touch with family and friends, but it also serves as a place I can put stuff I don't want to forget! If I don't write it down, I'll never be able to remember the finer points of any particular experience, and I don't want to lose those memories!

A lot has happened since the last time I was actively updating my journal, which according to my look back at the archives has been about a year! Denise and I traveled to Malaysia and Borneo (February and March 2007); Starry Nights celebrated its first official year (January 3, 2007) and its first operational year (April 2007); both of my maternal grandparents died (December 9, 2006 and April 1, 2007); I got to be on television cooking for Anthony Bourdain (January 2007); and Denise and I moved to a new condo in Bellevue (December 2006).

Malaysia

This was quite an interesting vacation. I wouldn't call it my favorite, but it was far from the bottom of the list, too. That honor goes to Jamaica (I"ve since realized that I don't like beach vacations). The people in Malaysia are definitely the most polite people I've ever met, exceeding even the Thai. The cities were clean (especially Singapore), but nothing too remarkable if you're familiar with the Eastside here in Seattle. The downside of Malaysia was the fact that it was Chinese New Year and everything was shut. And I mean shut. Not open for limited hours, but closed for days. When we arrived in Singapore in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, the place looked like Issaquah on an early Sunday morning.

The food in Malaysia rocked, though, expecially the Malay food. Malaysian cuisine can be divided into three parts: Indian, Chinese, and Malay. Both the Indian and Chinese foods were about what you'd expect, but adjusted for the local region. Malay food had similarities to Thai.

Starry Nights

I can't believe we've been running this company for 18 months now. It doesn't seem that long. And we're getting really busy, too! Not as busy as we could be, but way better than I expected. Last weekend over three days we served almost 400 people. That sounds like a lot to me now, but I'm looking forward to the day when a big weekend is 1500!

Granparents' deaths

I only mention this because of what happened while I was back for the memorial service in May. All the cousins got together for a party after the memorial service, and that was great for its own value. It was very fulfilling to reconnect with family now that we're all adults and meet all the cousins' wonderful spouses, too!

Anyway, John (who plays guitar) and Heidi's husband, Stan (who plays drums) got together in the basement for a casual jam session. I've always loved watching someone play the drums and with John on the guitar, it was a very powerful thing to watch. What this meant to me, was that for the first time in my life, I actually experience the parallel between food and music. The guitar on its own, and the drums on their own are good, but together they're better than their sum! Just like a sauce with proper seasoning. I was able to experience what the music was like as each musician took over the lead, just exactly the way that flavors change as you change the quantities. For me, it was like taking great cooking and turning it into pure audio. Seems silly to write about, but it was a very cool experience.

Cooking for Anthony Bourdain

I have already posted about this, but I felt it warranted another mention in the highlights of the last 12-months. The episode, "No Reservations, PNW" broadcasts occasionally on The Travel Channel.

New condo

One of the great things about the new condo is that I'm 15 minutes by scooter to Starry Nights. I don't have to get on the freeway anymore, and I only spend $12/month on gas!