The Heart of the Table | A World of Inspiration

Garden Art Focaccia: A Canvas for the Kitchen

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Sometimes inspiration just hits! For me, it started with the Azerbaijan cooking vlogs that constantly show up in my feed. I used to look forward to seeing friends and grandkids; now, I peer into the screen waiting to see my adorable Azerbaijan friends emerge through the green door of their tiny house to forage through the woods, harvesting as they go.

The only sounds you hear are the rustling of leaves and chirping birds. She uses a clever wooden board to chop everything from onions to a whole leg of lamb. But what gets me the most is how she bakes bread at almost every meal using nothing but her hands and a covered skillet. If she can bake gloriously delicious-looking bread over an open fire, then I can certainly take my bread baking to a new level using my state-of-the-art kitchen. Right?

The Bread as a Canvas

My go-to dough for this project comes from my book, Canvas and Cuisine: Art of the Fresh Market. It comes together quickly, rises when requested, and has just enough crumb to distinguish itself from a typical flatbread. I decided this dough would be my canvas, and a morning trip to the Farmer's Market yielded all the treasures I needed: multi-colored carrots, purple-green tomatoes, and earthy herbs.

It’s all in the planning. I laid out my design on parchment paper while the bread was rising—the smartest move I made, as it allowed me to move "petals" and "stems" before they were committed to the dough. I used red onions for flower petals, chives for stems, and sliced carrots for vibrant blossoms. Sage and parsley leaves pulled everything together, and my flower garden was born.

From the Archives: The Garden Masterpiece

Inspiration Everywhere

In the end, it worked like a charm and my pals "oohed and awed" at the results. Inspiration can truly be found anywhere—from a vlog in Azerbaijan to a stall at your local market—you just have to open your eyes. What’s going to inspire you this week?

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