Bun's dad, Dr. Yin Lok Lai MD PhD, Cambridge University
Tonight, I feel like a kid at his birthday party since I get to do fifty-five Kaiseki dinners. An in-depth explanation of what I’ve created is central to the Kaiseki dinner experience at Miya’s; each creation has an illuminating story which takes hours, cumulatively, to present. Each story allows the diner to appreciate the dish from my own unique perspective – as the inventor. The socio-historical significance of many of my dishes are often as important as their gustatory value.
Tonight’s Kaiseki dinner adventurers are a group of scientist’s from all around the world. I have a special affinity towards scientist because my father’s passion has always been research.
My dad has always carried around a pad and pens in his front pocket like the stereotypical mad scientist that you see in the movies. I know why scientists do that because I asked him one day when I was a small boy.
“Bun, I never know when I’ll get a good idea and when I do I have a pen and pad ready so that I can write it down. In fact, I even have a pen and pad next to my bed because sometimes good ideas come to me in my sleep.”
Years later, I read a book called “The Committee Of Sleep” which discusses how dreams can be used to feed one’s creativity or to solve problems. I spent most of my academic career sleeping, so this book made perfect sense to me, in bed.
This morning, when I sprang up, ideas that I had literally dreamt up for the Kaiseki party were still darting around my head like so many guppies. One idea that I felt particularly excited about was for the final course. I scribbled it down, half asleep, on the pad next to my bed.
A couple months ago, I’d fermented an experimental batch of lactose sugar sake. My brilliant idea was to warm it up and serve it in baby bottles so that each guest could feel nurtured like a…baby.
Not all the ideas that end up scribbled down on my pad are good ones. I’m sure that’s the way it went for my dad too.
