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| First Person |
Soul Food
Danny Meyer (as told to Constance Gustke)
08/02/2004
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Around the Campfire
Besides learning values from my grandfather and
parents while growing up in St. Louis, I also learned them in summer camp, where
I spent five summers as a boy. It was a remarkably magical place in the
northwest corner of Wisconsin that turned out a number of successful people,
such as leveraged buyout king Henry Kravis and screenwriter William Goldman. One
of the stanzas I learned there is:
There is a destiny that makes us brothers.
None goes his way
alone.
That which we put into the lives of others,
Comes back into our
own.
In other words, you have to get along with others.
We cooked there, too.
At camp, I even tied for first place in an outdoor cooking competition at age
13. I made lemon chicken in a Dutch oven buried beneath hot coals. I also baked
a cake in a reflecting oven opposite the fire. I love eating, and I love sharing
pleasure with others, because food is one of our universal needs. In my
restaurants, I try to attract chefs who cook for the pleasure it gives others.
There are some great chefs who only cook for the pleasure of themselves. But
there is a big difference between a chef who says, “Look what I cooked,” and one
who says, “Look what I cooked for you.” The first time I barbecued hamburgers
with my dad or made chocolate chip cookies, a large part of the joy was, “Look
what I cooked for you.” That is the philosophy on which my restaurants
stand—nourishment and nurture.
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