I’m one of the biggest snobs you’ve ever met, but I hate elitism, and snobs in general. I guess what I hate is being told I can’t like something… Oh, you can’t do this. Fuck you, I’m definitely going to do this.
David Chang – Chef and Ugly Delicious host
Seems like the past 8-10 yrs or so, chefs have become the new rock stars. Maybe not full-on ROCK stars, but certainly a jump up the fame totem pole. For example, I don’t recall people clamoring to get an autograph of a restaurateur back in the 90s the way we did a celebrity or pro athlete. Maybe it was Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, a great read; or The Food Network creation of chefs battling with laser lighting and dry ice. But once we got to slo-mo vignettes of chefs walking while contemplating the meaning of olives with a string score? Boom, we had a new category for idols to worship.
Don’t get me wrong, I can fawn with the best of them. Love me some foodie documentaries, ALL. DAY. They combine travel, entrepreneurship, artistry and magic; the latter for sure when you see how fire, spice and skill create visceral delights.
In the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, chef David Chang does his version of Bourdain, taking us on food adventures as he ducks into small hovels, where a craftsman spends his or her life perfecting a pizza. I love that level of myopic sweat when generating output, whether food, a painting or a garden. Of course there’s also constant FOMO in the mix. When Chang darts into a hidden restaurant you could miss with a sneeze, I have low-level anxiety of wanting to visit the spot. But hell, I can’t make time to visit all the gems in my Deep Ellum hood. But that’s a tangent I’ve already tread in my book. “Hey-ohhh, shameless plug alert!”
When does rebellion go to far?
In other words, I’m asking how much of ourselves do we lose to become a better person? And how much if anything do we hold tightly to keep a rebellious spirit. As a Christ follower, scripture tells me this in John 3:30-31:
He must become greater; I must become less. The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.
John 3:30-31
Ah, here’s the tension with rebellion and submission, and something greater than our vision. I don’t like the idea of reducing me to a lesser me. I want my vision known. What grabbed me in the Ugly Delicious episode was the Chang quote above. Like any true mapmaker, he’s doing his own thing, and took his stand when he jumped out on his own with not your average noodle. That part of his rebel nature is what makes any artist, chef, entrepreneur brilliant: the ability to veer off and risk failure by taking a stab at your vision, critics be damned.
In the John Eldredge book Beautiful Outlaw, Eldredge rightly positions Jesus as the rebel He is. And more tension for me. Christ didn’t hang out with the rock stars of the world, he chose the broken, ragamuffin and outcast. He pushed against the establishment (pretensions of Pharisees and roman officials). He invented a miraculous and timeless form of forgiveness known as grace. At the same time, Christ was wholly subservient to the will of His Father. His life was one of complete sacrifice for others, on an exponential scale that’s difficult to grasp. We forget that His revolutionary teaching came before the Dark Ages. He preached how love conquers all during a time when conquering was only associated with war and death. We’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 so many times at weddings, we forget the genesis of the message. Keep in mind this is a time when women were considered a form of chattel.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6
Truly extraordinary words. Could a man make this up without the hand of God? An equally challenging question is could David Chang keep his rebellious spirit while being surrendered to the greater will of Jesus? Can you? It’s a battle I fight daily. Lord, help me know deep in my heart that your rebellion is the one that counts.
See ya next time. ML