My whole culinary career has always revolved around fine dining. It’s all I’ve ever known—
Sixteen hours shifts.
Twelve-hour sous vide pork belly.
Forty-course tasting menus.
Vegetables sliced three millimeters thick.
Scrubbing the pass until every scratch lined up in perfect symmetry.
Scrubbing pans until every last layer of burnt fat and protein surrendered.

The dream of achieving perfection became an invisible weight on my shoulders.
Even in my sleep, I still felt it pressed against my skin—
until it becomes red,
like lobsters blushing out of boiling water,
relieved only in their final moments.

Today, I am finally ready to say goodbye to that sweet dream of mine—
the one that’s been slowly eating me alive.

Through this 6-course tasting menu, “Farewell Fine Dine,”
I will share with you six dishes—
each one a chapter in the journey:
from the spark of my first inspiration,
to the lessons, the tension, the nostalgia,
and finally—the letting go.

Because this isn’t a story of liberation wrapped in a perfect ending.
It’s a story of waking up
from a self-defeating cycle.
A story of self-acceptance.
And maybe,
the beginning of something new.

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-Tinn Jenjesda

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