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AMUSE-BOUCHE The Konstantin Duhovny Culinary Experience

SO? SICK STORY, RIGHT? We got love. We got loss. We got glow-in-the-dark ghosts and some unexpected tasting notes! What y’all think? That enough to make believers outta you?

Dang, coming at it with some shade! That’s alright; we got a lot more stops to make.

The Library’s just a warm-up.

Still, that drink’s important. It’s our guy’s gateway drug. Kicked off this entire culinary adventure. And hopefully it situates you just a little bit to where Bones was at the start. He could taste the flavors down to the component parts, which works fine for a drink, sure, but he had to get a clue about technique if he wanted to make food. Had to know whether to brown or boil or bake or braise, right? Take it from someone who spent a lifetime in kitchens—it’s a ways from mixology to meal service.

Oh hell yeah, I miss it! Kitchen life’s not for everybody, but if it’s for you—nothing else like it.

Me? Well, I hustled a long time. Worked my way in and out of restaurants. Had a whole path mapped to running my own place. But I lost my way a little bit. Got some talent, a little ambition, couple good reviews, and forgot what I was there to do. I stopped doing it for the food; started doing it for the fame. Just the status, you know? Thought I was hot shit, the next big thing. Put me up on the Food Network next to Ina. But life’s got a way of making you humble real quick. I was this close to my own spot when things went south. Wound up here instead.

Honestly? Bones is my boy. Helped me through it when my dad died. When my first restaurant failed. Those times half the people I knew were conveniently busy, he had my back. And now I got his.

Besides, I saw firsthand what he was doing in the kitchen. What his food meant to people. Reminded me why I loved cooking. Way it connects people. Like being in my mama’s house, watching her make my ’lita’s old recipes, the ones her mama taught her. Food’s history. It’s tradition. It’s gotta mean something to be worth anything, you know? And his did. Does. It’s why we’re all here, right?

This tour’s my little way of giving back. Of helping out my boy while getting me some of that good restaurant karma. But enough about me!

We got another stop to get to.

On the way, lemme tell you how Bones almost quit before he started. Psychic damn near talked him out of it. Happened down at this big warehouse party in Vinegar Hill. Hipsters for days—think Brooklyn Burning Man. Maybe some of y’all got over that way in a past life?