When The Unicorns Come to Town

When the unicorns come to town……
Wherever we–our little band of international food writers and broadcasters, in Yantai, China for the Gourmand Cookbook Awards–went, we were met with wonder, with awe, with cameras! Everyone we came upon, everyone who saw us, right away wanted to be snapped with us in a photo; it was as if we were creatures of wonder and there was no mistaking it: we were welcome, we were beyond welcome.
But we did not understand it at all: why would anyone want photos of US? James McIntosh was used to it, being a celeb chef in China due to his television series The Silk Road and introducing Aga to China. as was Cyril Rouquet-Prevost, world ambassador for Masterchef. But Bruna VS, Michelle Brachet, and myself asked Simon, our guardian angel in China, “Why? Why do they want OUR photos?”. “You look so different, like no one else they have ever seen” replied Simon. “Your hair, your clothes, your skin, its all so different……can you imagine: it is as if a vehicle filled with wonderful unicorns were to land in your town: you’d come out to snap pictures, right? Well, to the people of Yantai, Penglai, and other parts of less travelled China: YOU are like unicorns. And people want to remember you with pictures, especially ones that include themselves!”

I’ve never felt so loved.