I love hearing from customers how they take our meals and riff them up — heat them in a certain way, style on their plate, add stuff, mix with other stuff.

Great case in point… Herm, a customer and fellow gym mate kept coming up to me before class and saying “dude, you HAVE to try warming the tuna cakes… game changer!”

They’re indeed a big fave of mine so I was intrigued but I’ve always thought of them as an eat cold, right out of the container kind of dish. No more, thanks to Herm and his chef-level prescription for how to dial up our meal…

• heat the tuna cakes — I did a quick pan crisping hit, then microwave pulse
• make a bed of the fennel apple salad (cold) on your plate and drizzle the pesto sauce on top (also cold)
• then lay the tuna cakes on top for a next level combo of flavors and warm + cool/crunchy goodness

So I did it last night and damned if he isn’t right… a meal I already loved and eat a ton, got yet better. My daughters and I took a few snaps, including my youngest playing chef and doing some drizzle work. Outcome isn’t going to win any food photography prizes but sort of fun to get our stylist on.

And reminds me of the enduring wisdom in playing with your food, prepared meal or no.