This was one of the most important days, career-wise, in my life: When Perini Navi called me to schedule a photo shoot with a top photographer from Milan for an upcoming issue of their magazine. Perini Navi is one of the most successful, upscale, and well-respected ship builders in the world. And for me it was a great honor to be asked to be a part of the cooking portion of the magazine.

Unannounced to me at the time was that I was the recipient of the coveted, “Chef of the Year” award. You know, at the beginning I never thought it was so big. They just mentioned that they wanted a photo shoot so I’m thinking something low-key, small scale— normal. I never thought so big. One of their requests, however, was that I show up with an original dish.

At that time, I was experimenting with Avocado oil, again remember it is early spring in Viareggio, Italy, and I just returned from a weekend in Antibes, France. So it was important to me that I take all of these elements into consideration.

When Perini Navi called me, I was working on a 3-bean salad with crab, and then blending the crab with avocado noodles. And from the Antibes I brought some dry lavender roses and started combining that with sea salt to use as a seasoning.

You see, what put this dish over the top aesthetically wasn’t necessarily the ingredients but the way it was prepared. I was so careful to blend everything without breaking the noodles. And then I decided to do fava beans, pinto beans and black beans steamed very gently and just drizzled with avocado oil, lime juice and lavender sea salt.

Believe me, that is one of the most subtle flavors I have ever created. The combination of the fresh steamed beans with the coldness of the crab avocado salad lightly seasoned with sea salt was the perfect marriage— they were so impressed with the end product for the photo shoot.And what made it even better was that I made enough for each member of the staff to eat. We opened wine and enjoyed the occasion.

It was great, great photo shoot— a lot of positive energy.