My name is Gauri Thergaonkar.
I learned how to think about food when I was the retail manager at Zingerman’s Deli. I learned about the brilliance of food and how elemental it is in our lives, I learned how to judge flavors honestly, I learned the importance of tradition and provenance and I learned how to love learning about food.
Ari and Jan Longone taught me how to appreciate the history of food, the story of each ingredient you encounter. The more you know the story of a food, the more deeply it informs your creativity.
Then I apprenticed at Tracklements Smokery, where I still work part time. The production of food, I learned at the Smokery, is about artistry and flair, nuance and hard work superimposed over discipline and structure. The production of brilliant food is about allowing your intuition to inform your understanding. T.R., my boss at the Smokery, showed me that an extreme generosity of spirit (and wallet in his case!) can incubate personal expression.
I grew up in India. I intuitively understand spices. Spices are my friends. I may even be mildly obsessed with them. Or completely.
These lunches are an idea I am very excited about because they are a venue in which I can bring to fruition so many of my formative and best life experiences.
I want to serve bowls of food at these lunches that express each featured spice in a manner that is honest and intuitive and has some flair. And I want to garnish each meal by sharing a little bit of the history and provenance of the spice that I will be featuring.
Do come to one. Will you?
-g
