[from the Letters archive] The Walk-In My Office Incanto's business office sits in what was once the walk-in refrigerator for Speckmann's restaurant. Due to less-than-perfect ventilation and the fact that our ice machine blows hot exhaust air up the stairwell in our direction, this space is now, ironically, the hottest part of Incanto. Since we opened our doors in June, it has consistently been 82º-86º Fahrenheit at my desk. On hot days, it has pushed 90º.  We recently installed an operable skylight, which pemits some cross-ventilation, but there is no getting around the fact that it is darn hot up here.  Speckmann's walk-in did not begin its existence as a stationary refrigerator. It enjoyed a considerably more glamorous existence as the insulated body of a refrigerated delivery truck. The truck was most likely backed into the Speckmann's garage sometime in the early 1960's, the body detached from the chassis, then pushed into a corner and fastened to the floor using a series of cement forms. Because the truck body was backed into the garage, its original door faced the back wall of the garage.  Hans Speckmann solved this problem by cutting a new doorway into the other side of the truck body and installing a genuine walk-in door.  I learned all of this firsthand in September 2001 as we were demolishing the old walk-in and preparing to transform the building into Incanto.  The old walk-in did not go easily. We had a crew of 4 men working on it with saws, sledgehammers, crowbars, and a pickax for a full day before it was gone. Keeping Food Alive Paul likes to say that cooking is a way of keeping food alive. This perspective might seem counter-intuitive. After all, isn't cooking the act of using heat, fire, and chemicals to transform ingredients into foodstuffs that are fit for human consumption? And doesn't that necessarily involve taking a "living" piece of food and "killing" it so that we can eat it? But of course there is always more than one way to look at things. Cooking is merely a part of the greater food cycle that includes cultivation, harvesting, distribution, storage, preparation, and consumption. Our role in the cycle is to keep the essential character of the foods we prepare "alive" by choosing well, storing the food carefully, and handling our ingredients with respect and compassion.  If we do all this properly, the food will be very much alive when it reaches the table. Delicious, well-prepared food nourishes our guests and perhaps also increases their appreciation for the role of good food in our lives. In a perfect world, it may even increase a guest's respect for food issues, the importance of sustainability, and therefore play a small part in the bigger picture of keeping food alive. The Garden Our walk-in is the heart of Incanto. It is a garden. It bursts with life. Meat, poultry, and seafood have their own sections, at the bottom of the shelving that line the sides of the refrigerator. Cheeses, dairy, and eggs are on another shelf. Prosciutto and salami have a place of honor. Braises squat in their pans, ready to be used for that night's dinner service.  The majority of the walk-in, however, is devoted to produce: lettuces, squash, beans, broccoli, carrots, peppers, strawberries, and peaches, to name just a few. Paul and Jennifer spend a great deal of time in the walk-in. Sometimes I go to the kitchen to look for them – they are having a meeting in the cool of the walk-in. They sort through boxes to decide on that night's soup. They rotate ingredients through the shelves to ensure that nothing stays too long. Bits and ends become parts of our daily staff meal at 4:00 p.m. We do our best not to waste. Our walk-in is modern. It was never the back of a refrigerated delivery truck. It was built from pre-fabricated components to fit the back of Incanto's kitchen precisely. A digital thermostat keeps the temperature between 37º and 40º Fahrenheit. Much cooler than our office. Like the Speckmann's walk-in, however, it is the center of our operation. It keeps our food alive. Like Speckmann's walk-in, I hope it will be at least 38 years before it is torn apart.