BLASPHEMOUS HONEY CRUST BY LENA RUTHERFORD
My very first deep dish pizza. Chicago. This summer. Lou Malnati’s. Steaming hot. Pepperoni. Gooey. I savored every bite.
When just the crust was left, I asked if there was any honey. My coworkers looked at me with an odd expression. Who puts honey on their crust? They had never heard of such a thing! None of my friends from Chicago had done it before either. They thought it was inconceivable, even blasphemous to practice the art of pizza-eating in such a way. I guess that’s just not the way it’s done in Chicago.
Of course, for me, this is common practice. Whenever I get pizza in Colorado there is always honey on the table. In fact, my dad has even developed a “proper” way to put the honey on the crust so it doesn’t get all over your fingers!
I don’t know why the Midwest, and particularly Colorado, adopted this culinary practice, but it makes me wonder what other honey crust moments we have in our lives, our relationships, our work, our projects, and our hobbies.
It’s amazing to think that one person’s creativity has waterfalled into a whole group of people, years later, who don’t know any differently. Who was the creative founder of honey crust? Who was the creative founder of putting cream and sugar in coffee? Who was the creative founder of those wooly sweaters almost every sorority girl at Miami has decided is fashionable?
I challenge you to catch yourself next time when you do or think something automatically. Ask where it came from. Because someone in another location, culture, age group, gender, etc. might actually think something fundamentally different. And if we don’t open ourselves up to these fundamental differences and break down beliefs that are so fundamental to who we are, how will we be able to truly innovate for ourselves?
