Every once in a while — or maybe even everyday depending on your palate — do you ever find your taste buds craving new and exciting flavors? Maybe you’ve grown own of your Mom’s special meatloaf — which isn’t so special in reality — or perhaps you’re over that frozen dinner stint that left you oh so unsatisfied, or maybe you’re a budding foodie who’s looking to smell, taste, and nom your way to the top. Regardless of why or how you arrived at the conclusion to experience different varieties of food, it’s important to know where to start: your own kitchen.
That’s not to say that you can’t find inspiration for a good home cooked meal at specialty or unique restaurants such as good sushi restaurants. Quite the contrary! In fact restaurants and restaurant cuisine — even fast food items — in general can serve as a great source of inspiration for top cuisine cooked in the cozy confines of your own kitchen and not a trendy sushi bar.
Taken for example Gunshow, a unique restaurant located in Atlanta that seamlessly fuses bold versions of American favorites while heavily borrowing from elements of Brazilian churrascaria-style dining and traditional Chinese dim sum. But despite all that fancy-schmancy foodie lingo, Chef Kevin Gillespie knows exactly how to cook up some down-home, Southern eatin’. Yep, you know what that means fam: fried chicken.
His so-famous-they-only-serve-it-sporadically sandwich, named Closed on Sunday, was surprisingly inspired by sandwich from a fast food chain that’s — you guessed it — closed on Sunday. After waking up hungover, hungry, and with blurry memories of the previous night out with friends, Chef Gillespie became frustrated that he couldn’t sink his teeth into his favorite chicken sandwich on Sunday. After giving it some thought, he decided to make his own and his creation at his unique restaurant has become nothing short of a hit, garnering the attention of celebrities and earning a spot on FYI’s restaurant series ‘Food Porn’.
Closed on Sunday is just one example of how take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. After all, you can go to a five-star Italian restaurant and enjoy course after course and deliciously prepared Italian cuisine, but it still doesn’t compare to your Nona’s simple Sunday sauce now does it?
While exploring the experiences and flavors found at unique restaurants all over the country and beyond, don’t forget to do some experimentation right in your own kitchen. You don’t have to be the next Bobby Flay or Nigella Lawson, but you have to be without fear. Don’t be afraid to try a new spice or cut of meat. Don’t be afraid to develop a relationship with your local farmers to get first dibs on the freshest seasonal produce. And most importantly don’t be afraid to fail. Sometimes, things may just not work out the way you wanted them to in the kitchen. But as with life, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try, try again.