A little lemon, on the Amalfi Coast.

On a breezy spring afternoon on the Amalfi Coast, I found myself in a rustic outdoor kitchen watching a nonna cook.

At one point, she handed me a lemon she had just pulled from the tree. It was enormous. Misshapen. The skin was thick and uneven. Honestly, not the one you would have picked if you were choosing.

She had already served dishes that felt extraordinary. Then I watched that lemon find its way into dish after dish in different ways. I couldn’t have told you exactly what it was doing—only that everything on the plate somehow tasted more like itself.

A little lemon transformed something great into something unforgettable.

As she watched our table fall silent, she smiled and winked. She knew all along what those dishes were capable of becoming with just a little help.

I’ve thought about that moment often. Sometimes the best thing to be isn’t the main ingredient. It’s the catalyst that helps everything else become what it was meant to be.