(via beautyembrace)

This photo made me truly appreciate the craftsmanship of pizza and what it takes to produce this perfect edible triangular creation. The thing I learned is that it will never actually be “perfect”. The shape and consistency of the crust will always be slightly different depending on the season/day/temperature/humidity- and it is the beauty of combining a live dough with tomatoes crushed into a sauce, fresh mozzarelle grated and scattered over followed by local vegetables and hormone-free chicken sprinkled on top…

The idea of pizza is wonderful. It truly is the right balance of grains with protein and vegetables. And if the ingredients are clean of processes and additives, then perfection it truly can be called. :-)

The idea of what happens when people eat pizza together is the most perfect part. We use our hands. We share stories. We are at ease with one another. We are celebrating or not celebrating. We are sharing an experience and memory that will enter the bank of moments to be cherished for a lifetime. 

Thank you pizza. 

So I recently became friends with a really awesome dude named Dan Rollman who started the coolest company ever: www.recordsetter.com. It’s basically The Guiness Book of World Records for the most random and amazing records (ie the most number of Oreo cookies held between two people’s foreheads or the longest office chair train…). So, as a good new friend should do, I decided to set a new World Record of my own: the most number of butt traps made with a soccer ball in one minute.

See record here:

http://recordsetter.com/world-record/butt-traps-soccer-ball-minute/13862

Because of this, my friend Natalie randomly forwarded me an email asking me if I was interested in being in a national commercial for Sony with five European male soccer players and I of course said: um yes please. 

So I sent the casting people an email (unsolicited) to share my passion for this beloved sport. I wrote this following email in literally five minutes on the subway on my way to yes, my new bestie, Dan Rollman’s house. The words flowed out of me without any real thought and quite obviously came from a much deeper place inside of me. I paused before I pressed “send”.  It truly reminded me of why this sport, soccer, made me who I am today.

This is the email I sent them:  

Why soccer made me:

Fell in love with soccer when I was 4 years old, tripping over my dress kicking a ball. My father gave me a choice btwn doing traditional Indian dance or soccer and of course I picked soccer. Taught me the value of making good choices. :-) 

I scored 11 goals when I was 11 years old. Taught me true confidence. 

First time I cried for joy was when I was 14 and our team fought till the end to win and make it to the National Championship. Taught me the deepest meaning of teamwork.

First time I was ever told a boy liked me was when I was at the National Championship. He asked me to slow dance and I told him I’d dance three fast songs with him. He also pulled the seat out for me at the National dinner. Made me feel “girly” for the first time.

Made the boys team in prep school before going to Cornell even if there was a girls team. We changed in the same locker room as them. I scored the best goal of my life on this team which I will never forget.  Taught me to surpass the expected. 

Scored the first goal ever on Burman field at Cornell, a brand new field in my first game freshman year off a corner kick. Diving header. Scored a second goal in that game, assisted by identical twin sister who also played soccer at Cornell. Made me take a lot of pride in my university.

Made the starting line up for the New York Magic after college while sneaking away from my investment banking job on Wall Street. Taught me to chase my dream.

Had three reconstructive knee surgeries because of soccer and it taught me resilience and survival through the most painful of conditions. 

Went to the World Cup in South Africa (first World Cup experience ever) and watched the world unify under the magic of this sport.

Soccer has defined me and has given me the strength to become an entrepreneur and approach business in the same way as I did with soccer. 

I will forever be grateful to this sport.

Thank you for this opportunity, 

xo

Miki

I was excited and honored to give a TEDx talk at Cornell this past year. It’s about Social Entrepreneurship. Enjoy! 

It’s all about noticing and then celebrating those moments. 

We are expanding to Las Vegas! It is all becoming more and more real as the drawings and plans are solidifying. We’ll actually be on Las Vegas Blvd which is quite awesome. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com is partnering up with us to open our place and is revitalizing all of Downtown Las Vegas, which is a massive endeavor. I am excited to be a part of this process of building a new community in a city that never really had one. 

What I am most excited about is that we will finally be able to open the restaurant with our best foot forward. All the lessons and mistakes we’ve made in the past, since inception over five years ago (where I began with a total of zero experience in the restaurant business on the Upper East Side), will be prevented. I feel like the last five years have been the real life version of business school. What to do/what not to do/who to hire/who not to hire/when to promote/when not to promote/when to grow/when not to grow ETC ETC.

I am ready to open SLICE VEGAS the right way from Day 1 and create the true model for the future of this restaurant concept. I am so proud of how far we’ve come and that we’ve defied all odds of being open for over 5 years when 95% of restaurants fail after their first year and 85% of restaurants close after their second year. I am blessed with a killer team led by our GM and soon-to-be partner David Haynes and I can’t be more thrilled to make more positive strides this year. 

Gratitude is in the air. And our food ROCKS. I just had a slice of our Yuri pizza (white truffled ricotta pizza with sauteed mushrooms and local mozzarella). YUM. :-) 

January of 2012 was quite the challenging one for me. New York City is going after small businesses left right and center for everything they can think of since the city is strapped for dollars and it has really taken a toll on me and my enthusiasm as an entrepreneur- not to mention that we are in our slowest season for business. Even I, an eternal optimist, have been feeling squeezed.

Yet, somehow, I am still optimistic. Because all we can do is keep going. All we can do is continue to smile and find ways to grow. What’s the point of it all otherwise? If it doesn’t hurt, how can we grow anyway?

Quite a few friends of mine are going through this point in their lives/careers where they’re asking themselves “What is my definition of success? What’s the point of all this?”

And here is one brilliant definition of success, by Emerson, that will make me smile and put things in perspective forever:

Thank you Emerson.

I’ve been reading a book called “Enchantment” by Guy Kawasaki and I think it’s worth sharing a meaningful part of it (to me anyway), so that we can go into 2012 with the best of intentions!

“Mensch” is a German term for “human being” but in the Yiddish term, it means “honest, fair, kind and transparent, no matter who you’re dealing with and who will ever know what you did.” 

2012 is said to be the end of the Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new consciousness. Let’s think about all the people that passed away in 2011. Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jung Il, Kadafi, Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and several other world influencers and leaders. 2011 was a year of revolting- the world begging for real, tangible change. 2012 will be the beginning of it for all of us and I can’t wait to see how it will unfold! 

My two biggest lessons of 2011:

1. The power of consistency. Creating a truly consistent business, finding consistently performing staff, delivering product to the public in a consistent way every time. Being consistent with what we say and how we act with our peers, co-workers, friends, family and loved ones. Consistency is not confusing. I will focus on this in 2012.

2. The power of a great team. Hiring the right people that fit the right jobs will eliminate so much stress and increase the chance of success exponentially. Round pegs in round holes, not any other way. Your team should eliminate stress, not add to it. If you feel like your workload is more with the addition of a teammate, chances are you have the wrong hire. Hire slow, fire fast- only way to be. I learned this the hard way.

For 2012, let us all begin by being Menschs!

Here are 12 things for all of us to think about, to print out and put on our fridges so we can look at it every morning before we begin our days:

1. Always act with honesty.

2. Treat people who have wronged you with civility.

3. Fulfill your unkept promises from the past.

4. Help someone who can be of absolute no use to you.

5. Suspend blame when something goes wrong and ask: “what can we learn?”

6. Hire people who are smart as or smarter than you and give them opportunities for growth.

7. Don’t interrupt people (even if you’re excited to share a thought). Don’t dismiss their concerns offhand. Don’t rush to give advice. Don’t change the subject. Allow people their moment.

8. Do no harm in anything you undertake.

9. Don’t be too quick to shoot down others’ ideas.

10. Share your knowledge, expertise and best practices with others.

11. Focus on goodwill (positive actions that make the world a better place.)

12. Give people the benefit of doubt.

Happy New Year and let’s share our resolutions with our closest and dearest so that we can all hold each other accountable.

Method. How do we communicate to effectively convey our message? Our intentions could be perfectly good but if it doesn’t come off the tongue right, the interpretation is what actually matters. 

To deconstruct why my method is the way it is: I grew up with an Indian father and Japanese mother. Both had entirely different methods. My mother (of Samurai decent) had a soothing, patient, accepting yet stern method. My father had the “tough love” (Indian style) method.

We grew up defending ourselves a lot (from our dad). I would say that it was our defiance that shaped us in a lot of ways. (By “us”, I mean my twin sister Radha and I. Yuri, our older sister, managed to obtain our mother’s method and didn’t get into nearly as much trouble as we did. Our strategy was way off back then.) :-)

I always say that I wish I had learned my mother’s method right from the start but I’m glad that my father gave us the fighting spirit, one that entrepreneurs absolutely have to have to make it in this competitive world, with the thickest of skins. Rads and I have the ability to get knocked down and very quickly pick ourselves back up and adapt, likely because of that fighting spirit. 

However, now that it’s about to become 2012 (the year of the Aquarian), I need to start truly embracing my mother’s method. Patience. Taking three deep breaths every hour to center myself and my entire nervous system. Thinking longer. Not reacting. To eat a proper breakfast so that I can think more clearly all day. To become a soothing Samurai. 

2012 is a big year for all of us. What method would you like to change? 

One of my biggest (and seemingly obvious) lessons as an entrepreneur is that hiring people with the right experience matters. Being “bright eyed, bushy tailed and enthusiastic” is great if you’re hiring for an entry-level job, but I realized that if I am that bright eyed, bushy tailed and enthusiastic entrepreneur, I need to be with an experienced team who can truly execute the vision. 

I also realized that work culture matters. Is our team cohesive both with what we do at work but also as people? I spent over five years with a team that didn’t fit. I never really thought about “culture” because I figured all workplaces were like this. Tony Hsieh, one of my favorite new friends of 2011, wrote a book called “Delivering Happiness” and he talks about how critical it is for people to get along at work and enjoy the process of building/creating something together. 

Finally, under three months ago, I met my General Manager, David Haynes, who has the experience to deliver. It’s equally refreshing that I enjoy his company! We then brought on our amazing Chef Jose Martinez (trained under Todd English restaurants) and he can really cook, and he matches our culture and he can dance! We get along swimmingly. David then went on to hire a whole new front of house team and back of house team who also match our vibe. My father used to talk about “vibes” (he pronounced it “wibes” because he’s Indian) all the time and how important they are. He’s so right. 

I made a realization that it’s not just about having one compatible person at work but every single person in the organization has to fit in order to be truly successful, and more importantly, happy to come to work every day. Think of it like casting for a new show. Each cast member has to play his/her part and if the fit isn’t right as far as skills and personality goes for one single cast member, the cast as a whole fails and the show inevitably doesn’t succeed. 

It doesn’t matter the type of organization we are. Investment bank, soccer team, film production, restaurant business, across all industries, the culture, that each person in the organization brings, matters. 

As a result, the quality and consistency of the food and service at SLICE WV is amazing now, and I LOVE going to work every day and I am more fueled to grow this company than ever before. I write this with appreciation and gratitude to my fantastic team.

On World Food Day, I found myself at the United Nations watching Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN give a speech to world ambassadors. It was an honor to be there with the Super Sprowtz (www.supersprowtz.com) on World Food Day. 

These ambassadors gathered for a luncheon to listen and discuss world hunger issues (1 billion hungry on an overabundant planet). As I watched Ban Ki Moon get up and give his speech about food insecurity and food price inflation pushing 80 million people into hunger, accompanied by a slideshow of harrowing images of starving people, I couldn’t help but wonder if these ambassadors know what it’s like to go hungry for a single meal…

We catered a fabulous morning breakfast & craft service in Park Slope, Brooklyn for a tv commercial. Thank you Team Slice (Luisa and Jose esp) for its success!  

BEETS ARE AWESOME

rich in antioxidants and vitamins A, C, beta-carotene, iron and folic acid, beets are a nutritious-rich, alkaline food. they help normalize blood pressure, help keep your heart healthy, and have anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties. 

come on in and try our ROASTED BEET SALAD and sample some of our LOCAL NY STATE WINES

Come by our restaurant SLICE WEST VILLAGE (at 535 hudson st between perry & charles)- we have some amazing new menu items from our talented new Chef, including our roasted beet salad with goat cheese crema and our new asian cabbage salad with house-made peanut dressing. We are getting more and more inspired by international cuisine, but using local, seasonal and farm-fresh ingredients. YUM!

YURI PIZZA: White truffled organic ricotta pizza with sauteed mushrooms and organic mozzarella on unbleached herb crust infused with fresh herbs.