an introduction - late night october 2006.

in october of 2006 i woke up at 3am - shaken from sleep - thumbed through some channels - and eventually grabbed my computer. i had been trying to figure out what was next - how i could work in the world of food, but not be constrained by the conventions that didn't suit me - i had responded to this context in the year 2000 when my former partner and i formed family supper and ripe - but things had changed - i was different - and i wanted different things from the table - and wanted to contribute different things to our culture at large.

i scribbled these paragraphs together - and without much of a thought posted them on onepot.org - two years later one pot is coming into some kind of self awareness - still amorphous - still.

first one pot description:

"one pot is meant to be a bit more than a way of cooking, or a way to gather people, or a way to make some cash. it is meant as a gesture – a gentle fuck you – to the corporate little box we reside in and are supposed to dine in – you might see one pot plastered around town with an upside down trademark, an underscore, a conflation that says I am open source. if you are in nebraska, toledo, alabama, please take the name one pot, use it, put up posters, tag it, cook something simple, gather people and charge them money, or charge nothing, do it in a monastery, do it on a hill, your apartment, wherever, or don’t do it at all.

you want something more clear: I’m not a big fan of the transparent, a clumsy tool – but i will let you know the way I am personally using this thing called one pot - this brand that i am offering to any takers who feel the call – my little corporate one pot world headquarters in seattle washington will be hosting dinners in various locations – some open to the public and listed here, some deeply private and not listed anywhere, where we cook one simple thing in one simple pot and serve it to a group of willing participants. the main thing served on said evenings will have cooked long and hard and slow in an aged vessel. it is hardly any more complicated.

if you do decide to start your own one pot thing – be it a dinner, or a boxing match (food is not required - nothing is actually required) let me know and i will do my best to promote your endeavors, however tired, brilliant, or just plain not they may be… your event will be listed here - indiscriminately - with my own - it will be talked about in our email newsletters, it will get noticed. but. you need to send me some pictures, a broken plate, a story, some kind of talisman that speaks of what happened. if you are serious and ready (or just amused or like sending spineless little insults) email me at onepotorg@gmail.com. ‘till then."