Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture

Chapter 6. Who Stirs the Pot Matters

Grandma put her hand on Nancy's shoulder. "Everyone thinks it's the food, and, while I use the freshest ingredients around, so do a lot of restaurants. Others say it's the recipes. And, while my soup recipes have been in my family for generations, there's nothing special about the recipes. Sure, the recipes make tasty soup, but there are a lot of great recipes out there. The secret is me. Who stirs the pot matters," she exclaimed. "You can't separate the soup from the soup maker!"

"Why is that?" Nancy asked, trying to wrap her mind around what Grandma was saying.

"Because you are the number one ingredient in anything you make," Grandma said. "Whether it's a painting, a poem, a house, a business, or a pot of soup, the energy you put into it impacts your creation."

Grandma continued, "For example, did you know that some wine experts can determine the personality of a winemaker by tasting that maker's wine? There is a common challenge experienced by chefs that I call the 'stirring-the-pot phenomenon.' No matter how carefully different chefs follow the same recipe, the final product always varies a little bit. Even if two chefs do everything exactly the same way, the meal will always come out a little differently. Who stirs the pot has an impact on what's in the pot!"

Grandma's eyes sparkled with remembrance, "I also learned this truth as a young girl. My grandmother loved to cook, and to her, food and love were one and the same. When she cooked, she ...