Tofu pyramids and the genius of Greg Richardson
Greg Richardson, my Angelica Kitchen co-worker who once schooled me on the rules of love, has also taught me much about cuisine and life. I first realized his brilliance when he taught me how to cut a square of marinated tofu or tempeh for the sampler plate.
I had been mindlessly cutting each square into four triangles by slicing them diagonally, and then randomly stacking them. Greg took a more philosophical approach.
Sure, he cut each square of tofu or tempeh into four triangles. But then he cut one of the four triangles into a bunch of smaller pieces. He put the small chunks on the plate first and built a tofu/tempeh pyramid around them with the remaining three triangles. This way, once customers ate their little pyramid, they would discover “precious treasure” inside.
Treasure that was made of exactly the same stuff that made up the outside… inevitably making them realize that they had had treasure all along, and just lacked the perspective to appreciate it!
6 years ago