Today, I ran to the nearest bookstore (which happens to be a Chapters) and I could not find a new cookbook I wanted to read. So I picked one up that I had already leafed through. Monet's Table is a dreamy book, full of pictures of the house where Claude Monet lived with his family, and the gardens that surround it, focusing on the food culture in the home. Man, did they like their food, which is something I can completely appreciate. I also have an appreciation for wabi-sabi. The historical, homes and objects with lived histories, these appeal to me. Including old recipes. Some of the images in the book are images of old pages from the house-hold's cookbooks, handwritten.
The thing that most inspired me today - leafing through the book, looking at the pretty pictures and browsing the back of the book where the recipes are nestled - was the fête champêtre: social gatherings out of doors, and more specifically eating outdoors. Which made me think of the bistro.
How cool would it be to offer picnic lunches? Not just take-away, but actual picnics. There could be different grades of picnic, from Economy to Luxury, ie: Economy is just the food in tade-away containers, while Luxury would be a beautiful wicker basket (for example) with dishes and wine glasses and real cutlery and beautiful (but simple and easy to replace) rustic containers to store the food in. There could be a rental fee on the basket and/or a deposit. This summer I will work on developing picnic menus. How fun! Then, coming back from work, Ben and I can just pack the picnic and head out to the park to eat dinner. And what a wonderful thing to be able to offer that option to others through the bistro.
Notes: Would the customer have to order in advance or could I have a stock of picnic items they could pick-up on a whim?
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