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The Cutler, the Chef, and the Chicken
The Home of Ikigai Newsletter: August 20, 2023
James Noble
August 19, 2023
The Cutler, the Chef, and the Chicken
A letter from Chef James Noble
Good morning from The Home of Ikigai.
Q3 is really upon us and not long now to your first Chrimbo with Jimbo!
Are you bored yet? Do you yield? Have I blocked the box or am I heading to the junk mail?
Just for the record, there’s no AI here. This is just me, my keyboard, and my heart reaching out to you. There may be spieling mistakes, as Nobles’ grammar has never been good. And I may well waffle, but it’s 100% me.
It’s a new week and a new gear as we start to ramp up the opening and get things finalized and finished. This week I will add some pictures of our new place and our new vision, a vision we feel is needed to help the industry and something Chiang Mai maybe is missing for the next generation.
Before we get into it, a quick update on my health and why, once again, dropping off the wheel is helping me, my family, and all our mental and physical well-being.
I’m doing well, I’m on the recovery road, and I’m looking at my personal ikigai and how I can regain balance. My health is improving although I’m still battling on getting to match fitness.
I’m currently in an immune bubble and not venturing “out out“staying clear of maddening crowds and naughtiness. This, however, has a mental issue all of its own.
As chefs, we are not supposed to talk about things like this, or are we? The Black dog barks at us all, I’m sure.
As industry workers, we have the potential to have three parties a day. A day that’s filled with amazing highs and then as service finishes, crashing lows. This, my global family, is our industry. To avoid crashing lows we seek assistance, and this normally comes via a glass, or indeed worse.
I have been on this journey for years as a chef, wondering if my food was good enough. And as an owner, worrying if can we afford to continue? Has the fickle world of food and beverage written a damning review? Or indeed worse, has my team’s food cost gone over 32%?
I can assure you of this. If you do the best you can and you give 90% to everything (leaving 10 for yourself) then you can’t do anymore and that is enough, period!
Some guests simply get on the wrong bus. If your food is great and 95% of guests love it then you’re good to go. The others, well they just don’t understand it. They need to get back on the bus.
Stay the course. Do not add local cuisine to an amazing French menu but be fluid. If a food cost increases, look always to offer benefits rather than increase the price. Offer things that cost us nothing and you will be fine. That being said my beard is now totally white, and the hair is receding past my ears.
Always put yourself in the seat of the consumer; would you be happy? If it’s yes, then stay on the path. If not, adjust a little. Be a willow tree and not an oak: a bend and sway will win the day.
The customer is always right if they are the right customer.
The Chef’s Shop
Here is what we will be offering:
Re-edging, sharpening, and cleaning knives.
Scissor sharpening, meat slicer blades and even taking out dents!
We can also engrave blades and offer advice on our knife range to buy for your needs and knife skills in our kitchen with me and the team, guaranteed to leave with all digits.
The Past Knife
Second-hand Japanese knives by the cutler
Used Japanese knives that we give a new lease of life to at half the price of the new knife but as amazing as the day it was forged.
Also a large stockist of inbound and Thai forged steel with organic sustainable teak handles. Come see our stock!
So what will it cost?
A simple re-edge and polish only 100 THB per knife
A sharpen 50 THB per knife
A meat slicer blade 200 THB per blade
Scissors 50 THB per pair
Training Course: How to use a knife and keep it sharp 500 THB including lunch.
This is how our cutler works.
Drop your knives off, have a coffee, browse the library, make a booking for the evening restaurant and we will give you a ticket and a time for picking them up. Normally 48 hours, oiled and wrapped, and we can send them back via recorded delivery.
The service is in our apparel shop, more about this in the next newsletter but the aprons are stellar.
Bring a reusable bag as there may well be something you need in the shop, you never know!
Opening offer, for the first 10 people who bring in knives from the 1st of September you will receive one knife sharpened free for every knife or item you bring. Buy one get one.
Weirdness Alert
If I could remember my pin number or indeed my children’s birthdays as opposed to random weird pieces of useless information life would be so so much easier.
Did you know they say that tigers’ pee smells like buttered popcorn, now I wonder how it tastes, or indeed how do I get close enough even to find out. Just thought I would share, and who are “they” anyway, that’s more the point.
Remember this. Wine and children speak the truth…
Market Tour
Let me take you on a whirlwind weekly market tour!
Avocados, swiss chard, morning glory, bok choi, cabbages, kale, spinach, and many more water lily vegetables. Rambutan, Mangosteen, Pomelo, and Longkang are still in season, but Dorian and Mangos are tailing off.
Fear not, strawberries are on their way as is the humble spud in Q4. Be aware of forced, aided vegetables from over the border. Let your menus represent chefs along with a lot more, remember free-range chickens slow down egg production during the rain.
Fun Food Fact #3
Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside, Nancy wanted me to tell you this!
The 5 Blue Zone Countries
Italy-Sardinia, Greece, Japan-Okinawa prefecture, Costa Rica- Icaria, California -Lorna Linda
Let’s focus on Italy, Sardinia, in particular, this week.
Sardinia is one of the 5 longevity blue zones (LBZ). It also has the highest male pollution of all the blue zone countries. A hubby hunting ground? Remember they live a long time!
Being an isolated island, they have adopted a self-sufficient mindset and have their own source and style of food that is high in nutrients and considered taboo by the outside world but revered as a delicacy by the Sardinians.
With less contact with the outside world and the natural source of seafood and fertile land, the Sardinians have a lower stress level and a healthier diet due to a simple lifestyle. At The Home of Ikigai, we will reflect on some of their techniques using locally made cheeses and omega-high fish and paying homage to this lovely island at the heart of the Mediterranean.
Don’t Forget the Power of The 9
Be one with Nature
Wake up with purpose.
Scale back.
The 80%.
Slant to plant.
Moderation.
Being.
Love yourself.
Surround yourself with like-minded people.
The Weekly Recipe
Email me pictures of your shellfish dish
and we will reveal how we serve ours!
The best-looking plate gets an apron from our apparel range.
A Note from Chicken
It’s been a long week in Nancy's world. She did a day with Daddy on Monday and fell asleep halfway through saying I work too hard.
Mother’s Day has been and gone and we both had a pedi and mani, I stopped before the nails went pink- she loved it!
For Mother’s Day, she wrote me an inspirational letter. She says I’m better off than most, and I should stop being stressed and believe in myself. I’m strong and a great daddy. There was a tear on the page where she had written it—boom I was in tears and it reminded me how it’s important to balance and only give half your day to work. People don’t care about your mental health, they only care about theirs.
On a positive more lighthearted topic, she’s very excited about the strawberry season on its way. She can eat her body weight in strawberries but sadly not broccoli.
She is amazing and will always remain my best recipe, and when she was asked about branding as a subject at school and to draw the 5 brands and why she likes them, she drew ikigai and said ” What’s there not to like.” I love you NC to the moon and back.
Nancy says hi!
Have a great week ahead, and keep working on your balance and food, your body deserves better fuel try to drink water and only fill yourselves to 80%, water will fill the rest.
