DUKAI
The Notebook

04The Notebook · Inspiration

The people, places
and moments behind the food.

Every dish starts somewhere. A customer who ordered the same plate for years, a conversation during service, someone who first showed Paul an ingredient, a mistake that turned into a method. These are the stories of where the ideas come from, from his past and his present.

A coastal town seen past a stone wall and olive branches

How a story is kept

Where did
the idea come from?

A story does not have to involve a famous name or a glamorous place to matter. Each one is kept simply, and pointed at whatever it led to.

Where stories come from

Restaurants worked in · Clients and regulars · Conversations at the table · Chefs and cooks · Suppliers, markets and producers · Friends and family · Travel · Ingredients discovered somewhere · Meals remembered years later · Mistakes and unexpected moments · Food traditions met through other cultures

  1. 01

    Who, where or when

    A person, a place or a moment. It need not be famous or far away.

  2. 02

    The story

    What happened, in Paul's words.

  3. 03

    What it changed

    Where the idea came from, and what it became: an ingredient understood differently, a sketch, a dish.

  4. 04

    Related

    The ingredient, sketch, experiment or recipe it led to, where those records exist.

Visual studies

Food. People. Places.
In fragments.

AI-assisted visual studies used as mood, composition and atmosphere references for the DUKAI world. They are not documentary photographs.

A notebook page with an ink drawing of an artichoke and handwritten notes
NotebookDUKAI study 01
A coastal town seen past a stone wall and olive branches
PlacesDUKAI study 02
A worn leather notebook with a sprig of sage, a mortar and a bottle of oil on a stone ledge
CuriosityDUKAI study 03
Sage leaves on a stone surface
IngredientsDUKAI study 04

The stories

The first stories are Paul's to tell. They will appear here as he writes them, one person, place or moment at a time.