@HomewithDean - Homily 7/31

So, this week Tina and I got together with our friend Sarah for a late lunch at a restaurant in town that we’d heard a lot about but hadn’t tried yet. One thing you should know about Tina and I—whenever possible we don’t eat … we dine. But don’t get the wrong impression of what that means. Yes, we’re unashamedly foodies, but fine dining is not getting all dressed up and paying crazy amounts of money for some tiny little artisanal entre on a cracker. No, for us dining is an extension of our design philosophy and our life philosophy. In homes, custom and quality is not the same as luxury. What makes a house a home is the care and passion of the people that engage with it, and the same holds true for food.<br /><br />For us, truly fine dining is about good company and good conversation over plates of good food prepared with care. That can happen in a fancy restaurant, it can happen at home, or at a sidewalk cafe, or a taco stand. It rarely ever happens in some chain restaurant and it never happens when whomever you’re with is committed to trying. It almost always happens in some independently owned place where everyone is there, including you, because they want to be. All that’s required is people who care—about the quality of the conversation, about the quality of the service, and of course, about the quality of the food.<br /><br />So we’re there loving our lunch … By the way, the place is called The Moody Rooster and if you live in or anywhere near the Conejo Valley you should grab a good friend and go. It’s truly brilliant … So we’re loving lunch and Sarah asks me something about the show if I’d ever imagined it being what it is. And I said no, and we got talking about people with “it”, the x-factor that makes everyone flock to them. And I had to tell her that I know a lot of people now with “it” and I’m not one of them. That’s not false modesty, honestly. I like to think that if I had “it” I’d admit it. But I will admit, and did admit to Sarah, why I think the show is doing as well as it is. And it’s the same r