I started The Hedonist Table because I want to experience the world more deeply. We exist in day-to-day rhythms of waking, doing, and winding down. I want there to be more of the in between. I want to find the exceptional within that day to day rhythm.
I lived in Brooklyn for five years. There, my love of food blossomed as I had the chance to try excellent dishes, global flavors, and develop my palate. I had opportunities to travel and my senses were engaged not just with food but with new sights, smells, and feelings. I stacked peak experiences one on top of the other.
After New York, my husband and I lived in AirBnBs for two years and we got to build on that set of experiences. Spending more time in each of those places meant experiencing them more deeply, and peak experiences became even bigger and stronger. All of these moments began to live within me. They attached to my bones and became a part of who I am.
Two years ago, we settled in a home and started a family. When my wonderful daughter arrived, my world went from a spread of varied experiences in each year, month, even day, to one very narrow experience that I get to have every day. It’s unspeakably beautiful and I find myself looking for meaning not in variety and newness anymore but in depth. I throw myself into passions with the ferocity that I used to use to chase novelty.
I am harnessing that passion now, directing it to new peak experiences, unlike the ones I lived before. I’m going on a journey again, just as I once journeyed through travel and exploration of my city and its food. This time, I’m journeying within my new, rooted life. I want to find peak experiences in the day-to-day that light me up and make me believe that something incredible is just around the corner. I believe that journey will come through my senses. I have found moments of curiosity and awe in my own little kitchen. I have marveled at how the feel of the sun on my skin can remind me that I’m alive.
My aim with The Hedonist Table is to put a lasso around those moments of awe and pull them close. I want to find the colorful and surprising in the world, even when I walk in the very same footsteps each day.