Ideal Story 006 "SOIL & HANDS"

Farm Restaurant -SOIL & HANDS-

Someone tills the soil. Someone sows the seeds. Someone waits for the rain, pulls the weeds, and harvests.

Dirt gets under the fingernails, and the hands become dirty and black. Those hands are certainly not beautiful.

However, the vegetables grown by those hands are imbued with the seasons and time of that land.

SOIL & HANDS believes that "hands that have touched the soil create delicious food."

It's a very simple thing.

At the restaurant in Nice, France, the dishes are made with vegetables grown under the sea breeze.

In restaurants in Tuscany, Italy, herbs and tomatoes still covered in morning dew become the ingredients for the day's dishes.

Even though the locations may differ, there is one thing they all have in common: the cooking is done by people who understand the soil.

The cook sometimes goes out into the fields. The farmer sometimes goes into the kitchen. No one divides their roles too much.

Food doesn't begin in the field and end at the dinner table. Many hands are involved in the process.

At SOIL & HANDS, there are no brand-new uniforms. Slightly faded aprons. Well-worn canvas bags. Muddy boots. These are proof of hard work, and proof of pride. Proof that we have nurtured someone's meal today.

The following is written in small letters at the entrance of the shop:

"DIRTY HANDS GOOD FOOD."

Those words aren't just for farmers. They apply to people who grow herbs in their gardens, and to those who spend their weekends in their fields.

Whether it's someone touching the soil with their children or someone cooking, every hand is nurturing a delicious future.

Visitors to the store can take home a souvenir T-shirt as a memento of their time there.

I choose one to take home. The words "DIRTY HANDS GOOD FOOD." inscribed on it become a small memory to bring back to my everyday life the air, the smell of the earth, and the warmth of human hands that I felt in this place.

That's why SOIL & HANDS continues to blur the lines between the fields and the kitchen today.

To bring dishes that begin in the soil to completion by human hands.

*This is a fictional story based on ideals.

I wonder if souvenir T-shirts actually exist...?