First Republic Bank reserved the entire The French Laundry last night to entertain a group of equity investors. The theme of the event was French, of More

First Republic Bank reserved the entire The French Laundry last night to entertain a group of equity investors. The theme of the event was French, of course. Here I stand with The French Laundry's Chef Timothy Hollingsworth. Had I known that I was on camera I would have vogued a bit more. His amazing appetizers and wines floated by the guests, a band played featuring a French style cabaret singer, and I provided the guests with the basic recipe for painting in the tradition of the French Impressionists. Willing students painted a group painting actually using my professional grade paint and brushes. With my help, each guest did their part on the canvas and then signed the back. For some, this experience created a memory that will last a lifetime. Now I sort of take this "experience" for granted. But many of these guests are left-brain, logical thinking types and they many not have painted since they were in kindergarten. I explain the primary recipe for painting a landscape. You look out into the environment and paint a series of planes or layers from the back to the front. Starting with the plane that's farthest way, that's the sky, then the mountains, and so on. The last plane that you paint is the one closest to you in space. Even though these guests are successful and decisive personalities, as they step up to the canvas, outside of their comfort zone, they're often not feeling quite so powerful. Their inner critic emerges and they say things like, "I don't want to <b>...</b>
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