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>> When I was 18, I started working at a grocery store.

I remember the very first arrangement I made, the lady returned.

It was so terrible.

I didn't think it was that terrible, but it also made me want to get better at it.

So at that point, I was like, "You know, I'm going to prove these people wrong.

I'm going to let them know that I can design."

So I worked really hard while I was there, creating and making and trying to forge my own path up that mountain of being a designer, the way that my style cultivated.

I guess out of a little bit of mistakes that I had made, I wouldn't order enough flowers for an arrangement, so I'd have these gaping voids in my arrangements.

And so I started grabbing the closest things to me that I would like statues or cool crystals or rocks or coral to fill those in.

And then I quickly realized that they were beautiful in there, and that they almost were a flower itself.

Coral is so beautiful.

It mimics nature just like florals do.

I started implementing oddities or just objects into my arrangements and that have my brain firing to the possibilities?

I don't think I really noticed it at the time, but was changing the landscape of what people thought was.

Floral, you know, or what people thought are typical arrangements would look like.

So I really set out on a journey to make things that spoke to me and that I liked.

And that's kind of what I've been doing this entire time.

>> The two people I'm spending time with today have both stumbled upon careers that affect how people feel.

Their work has the ability to transform the energy in a room, to provoke thought, and encourage people to gather.

I have always loved my work in food because I believe that we can all disagree on many things, but food is the great unifier when made with thought and set at a table that feels inviting.

Cooking is in the category of pursuits that can move those that it touches.

Today, I'm going to learn from two people who have an uncanny ability to evoke emotion in two different kinds of careers.

And I'm going to see if I can bring some of that with me to incorporate into my own life.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Since his days arranging flowers at a grocery store, things have really changed for Antonio Bond.

Nothing is getting returned anymore.

He doesn't even advertise.

His work is sought out simply by word of mouth from high-profile people and places.

In fact, he tries to stay invisible.

>> I want my work to speak for itself.

I want my work to grab people.

And I think word of mouth has been really good to me, because it really brings the folks to me that are intrigued in what I'm doing.

Some of my installations are definitely permanent.

You know, I either use dried materials or silk materials.

I love making permanent things.

I think at one point in time a few years back, I was like, I was destined to make things that lasted because with flowers, everything is so fleeting.

You know, it's a five-day, four-day thing and it's gone.

And there's something beautiful about that too.

But I also really wanted to create something that had a longevity to it.

>> He collects trinkets, bones, foliage, and bucolic items to incorporate into his floral designs.

>> I call them my tchotchkes or my, you know, oddities.

There's so much beauty in objects that you could overlook.

I'm a big fan of using, like, animal skulls or the driftwood or even broken pieces of statues.

Once I learned that you can put flowers on just about anything, it opened the door completely for me to indulge myself in every weird thought that I had ever had about, like, what could I use for a floral arrangement, you know?

There's this communication going on.

You know, you're like giving new life to something that has passed away and you're almost paying like, tribute to it.

And it is so beautiful to repurpose things and not let them fall to the wayside or just collect dust, you know, but to take them off the shelf and use them in a way that provokes thought and provokes conversation.

I don't think that I really, like, set out to like find meaning in things.

I think that I discovered those meanings by creating with it.

And if my work can, like, provoke a thought or an emotion or a feeling, then I've done my job.

>> ♪ This is that luxe life, so nice ♪ ♪ Luxury, luxury ♪ >> My philosophy with making floral arrangements is that I want each one of them to have their own voice.

I want each one of them to be its own sculpture, almost.

You know, I frown upon making things like a cookie cutter.

Like every one of them looks the same.

I want everything to have its own reaction for people.

I want people to want to look around at all of them, almost like a gallery show.

There is no "This is the front.

This is the back."

It's an experience.

That's really what I'm looking to accomplish, this sculptural experience.

They all look like they belong together and they all are hanging out in the same party, but they all are wearing their own like fancy clothes.

>> ♪ Watch me go ♪ ♪ This is the luxe life, so nice ♪ ♪ Luxury, luxury ♪ >> I really feel like creating something with your hands that's in front of you that's dimensional, that you can either if it's painting or sculpting or cooking or building or whatever, there's such an accomplishment to yourself to be able to do something and complete it and finish it and just have that connection to it, you know?

It's like it's a part of you at that point when you build something.

♪♪ >> Behind a bar, through an unmarked wooden gate, is Antonio's extraordinary workshop, where I've come to learn.

Is this a piece of driftwood?

>> Yeah, this is a piece of driftwood.

>> How do you approach deciding how to arrange in a piece like this?

>> So my approach, I cut the oasis brick, trying to try to find a nice little pocket for it.

If a piece fits best in there.

Let's see, I like that.

>> Yeah, it almost... >> That feels really good.

>> ...sticks itself in when you press it.

>> Mm-hmm.

Step one is done.

I get that brick on there.

And then I start adding flowers.

I don't really have a rhyme or reason with how I add flowers.

I kind of let it talk to me, you know what I mean?

So I start to look at what I have.

And I really like these guys.

>> What do we have here?

>> We have anthuriums, and we have anise, roses, and peonies.

>> My favorite.

>> What I like to do is I like to start with these flowers, and I kind of like the clump things together and try to make them look like they're growing in nature, you know?

>> And I love that you've already started from the bottom.

>> And there's a lot of taking things in and out and, you know, recutting and reshaping.

Do you ever just take it all apart and start over?

>> All the time.

I'm constantly restarting.

Kind of just start going for it, you know?

Don't be afraid.

If you can hand me one of those peonies.

Ooh, I love that one you have in your hand.

>> Lighter pink.

>> And -- Oh, yeah.

And then let's find a little spot for it.

Nice little home.

Feel like Bob Ross at times, you know, just like -- >> Oh, man, I grew up watching him.

>> Typically, I pull off all the greenery.

Sometimes I don't.

It depends on the style of arrangement, but since this is so low, you don't need any of the foliage on it.

Here, I'm going to hand you a rose, and if you could help me reflex those roses.

>> My first reflexed rose.

>> Look at that.

I love all the different color that you can see.

It turned almost golden once we opened that up.

As you can see, like, I'm, like, sticking to these colors that are clumped together there.

Would you mind handing me another peony?

>> Should I go darker here?

>> Yeah.

>> This one's a little open.

>> I love it.

I love the open.

It's an evolving piece, you know?

And then let's rotate.

Let's see where we have holes.

You can see like right here.

>> Mm.

>> Need to find a little thing for that.

And what I think I want to do is we have some little spots we can have them so they're like... >> They could peek out.

>> ...dripping through a little bit.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> The devil's in the details so much, you know?

You want somebody to get low and, like, look in there and see.

Gonna keep on rotating here.

I think I'm going to embellish this kind of waterfall of anthuriums because I love the way it looks.

And I like when things kind of, like, hit the table and break the line a little bit.

>> And how do you know when to stop?

How do you know when you're done?

>> That is one of the hardest things.

I typically know when I'm done when I've looked at it enough and I'm like, "All right, if I add any more, it's going to, like, fall apart on me."

I'm kind of a maximalist when it comes to floral arranging.

This is where I would stop.

I could already tell you I'm like, "All right, I don't need to add too much more."

>> It's tempting to keep going.

>> It is.

It's fun.

It's always fun to add more.

Everyone is a creative.

Everyone has that in them.

For me, it has been a beautiful, wonderful ride of creativity.

It has -- It cured my anger at times.

It has brought me joy.

It's great medicine.

Everything goes out of your mind and you're focusing on what you're working on and it allows you to relax.

It's a wonderful tool, you know, and I think everyone should should dabble in it.

You don't have to make a career out of it, but it's a part of life that I think everyone should experience.

>> I'm going to take the driftwood arrangement that Antonio loaned me and see if I can build on it as a centerpiece for an afternoon tea party.

Before I do, I'm going to make one more stop for the most important ingredient.

>> ♪ Stepping into the fold ♪ ♪ Staring at the unknown ♪ ♪ It's got a way of showing us where we need to go ♪ >> Like Antonio, So-Han Fan came upon his career through exploration and persistence.

As a Chinese-American living in Texas, he found himself trying to find ways to connect with his culture and heritage.

He grew up drinking tea at home, but his interest was reignited in college and then serendipitously, years later, when he found himself in the tea mountains of China.

>> I was 20 years old, and I walked into a little tea shop called Chaikhana in Santa Cruz, California, owned by a man named David Wright, and he was sitting at the back of the shop.

He was the only one in there.

And he gave me a cup of white tea.

And he's the first person who, like, introduced me to this concept of gongfu cha and just immediately appealed to me because it's beautiful and it feels good to do.

I wasn't old enough to buy alcohol.

You know, a couple weeks later, I got a tea set and I got a bunch of tea, and I would just pour tea for my girlfriend and my housemate.

And then our friends would come over to study or whatever, and we would drink tea together.

And that's just what we were doing all the time.

>> Today, So-Han, with his partners, runs West China Tea, a community space that offers hosted tea sits and a full catalog of farm-direct tea from growers he has built relationships with in China.

He has created an inviting third space for people.

Not home, not work.

A place where dogs and babies alike can convene.

A place where you can truly foster and experience community.

So-Han's passion for tea became a business when he worked as an environmental researcher in China.

As he explored the mountains where tea grows, he met a tea farmer.

This relationship was the beginning of his work importing farm-direct tea, the kind of tea that can only be accessed through relationships forged in person in the tea-filled mountains of China.

>> What we're doing today is called gongfu cha.

And it's not a ceremony, it's a discipline.

And gongfu means "skill acquired through mindful practice."

Cha means "tea."

It also means just passing the time.

It's from southeastern China.

We start by warming everything up and purifying everything with boiling water.

So this is to wake up the vessels, wake up the tea service, get the tea service started.

>> I like that concept of waking it up.

>> And this vessel that I'm holding is called a gaiwan.

And gaiwan means "lid bowl."

And this piece is designed to steep tea.

This is the oldest tea steeping vessel, and I'm going to be steeping the tea in here and using the lid to separate the water from the leaves.

>> Okay.

>> I'm going to pour from here into here before I serve it.

>> Okay.

>> And the reason for that is because if I was to serve directly into the cups, let's say I've got like a bunch of cups sitting around and I pour one, two, three, four, five, six cups, right.

The first person to get served gets the weakest tea.

The last person to get served gets the strongest tea.

It's not just.

So gongdao means "justice" and bei means "cup."

So this is called a justice cup.

>> So interesting.

>> Yeah.

At its heart, the purpose of this practice is to make tea well.

So I'm going to start by rinsing the tea.

We're not going to drink the first steeping.

We give it to the fish.

Each tea has its own qi, and its qi is related to how it's grown and how it's processed.

But its qi is also a major part of what gives it its value.

So go ahead and pour that on this toad.

>> On the toad?

>> On the toad.

His name is Chanchu.

He is -- And then the fish can get some too.

We're not drinking it not because there's anything wrong with it, it's just weak.

>> So the first steep is just a rinse that gets discarded.

It kind of awakens the leaves.

>> Exactly.

Sheng pu'er is my favorite kind of tea.

>> What makes it your favorite?

>> I like it the best.

>> Okay.

>> The qi is good.

That's why.

Everything has qi.

The qi of tea is what you feel when you drink it, and it's what makes the tea good or bad.

At the end of the day, it's that you drink it and you like it.

>> It's just a feeling.

>> And it makes you feel good and you want to keep drinking it and therefore it's good.

>> And a qi that resonates with you is going to be different than one that resonates with me.

>> Absolutely.

>> That's what makes it special.

>> Yeah.

So we're going to smell first.

Then we're going to slurp it as we sip it.

>> Okay.

>> Audibly.

Audibly slurp.

>> Audibly slurp.

>> [ Slurping ] And then after you swallow, breathe out through your nose.

>> Oh, wow.

You can really taste it more when you breathe out.

>> Yeah, yeah.

It's called retro olfaction.

And you get to smell the tea on your own breath.

>> Wow.

>> So that's the first steeping.

And it's just going to get stronger.

If you want to really experience a tea, you have to steep it multiple times because it does different things at different parts of its life cycle.

>> Yeah.

>> And if you don't steep it multiple times, it's like a snapshot versus a movie, you know what I mean?

You're getting all of this rich information from the tea when you drink it multiple times.

Let's talk about tea.

>> Yeah.

What is tea?

>> Tea is a plant called Camellia sinensis.

We use the word tea in American English to refer to any plant steeped in hot water.

>> Yeah.

>> Technically, tea is just the one plant.

And there's six types of tea.

Green, unoxidized, yellow, slightly oxidized, heicha, the fermented teas.

As they age, as they ferment, they increase in value.

Oolong, medium oxidized, but there's a lot more to it.

And then red teas, fully oxidized.

White tea, not cooked and therefore traverses the oxidation spectrum, starting low oxidation and oxidizing all the way to being completely oxidized.

>> So depending on how old it is will determine how oxidized it is.

>> Yes.

>> Why do you think it's important that we continue these very old, age-old traditions?

>> For me, as a Chinese-American person, as a Chinese-descended person, I think it's important to carry on the traditions because these are the flowers of humanity, you know, these cultural things.

These are the fruits and flowers of the human tree is these beautiful things that people developed over the years.

And when they can be healthy for us and bring us closer together, then, then that's great.

And also being able to share part of my heritage in a way that is not just meaningful for me, it's meaningful for the people that I'm sharing it with.

>> This has been a really tremendous experience.

Thank you for sharing it with me.

And I feel so inspired and educated, and my mind has expanded to what tea can really be in one's life.

Now I'm going to take this inspiration to the kitchen and make some foods that will go well with the practice of drinking tea.

I have a few recipes in mind to pair with the tannins of the tea -- marbled tea eggs, cream-filled dessert sandwiches, and what I call vegetables on a fence marinated in good olive oil.

I was thinking about what would make some interesting tea party snacks.

I'm going to try to make Chinese tea eggs, which are really interesting.

They're lightly marinated and they have a marbled effect.

I'm doing soy sauce, some black tea, or as So-Han calls it, red tea.

I've got some Chinese five-spice blend.

It's a combination of fennel, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, clove.

I've got some sugar here as well.

And I'm going to put in 1 cup of water.

I'm going to save the second cup to help the mixture cool down later.

I'll let that slowly mix together.

I'm going to bring it up to a simmer.

Then I'm going to let it simmer for about ten minutes so that that tea really infuses into that liquid and it makes a perfect dye for our tea eggs.

Now, in the meantime, I've got some eggs that I soft-boiled.

You could hard-boil them as well.

I have them in an ice water bath.

The way that you soft-boil an egg is you get your water boiling, and then you drop in the eggs gently with a ladle and let them boil in there for seven minutes.

Pull them out and put them in an ice water bath and let them cool down quickly.

So what I'm going to do now, they've been sitting in this ice water.

I'm going to take the back of a spoon.

I'm going to crack them.

Gonna crack them really well, because those cracks are where all of that liquid is going to seep into and die the eggs and give them a marbled effect.

All right, we got him in here.

Give it a quick stir.

I'm gonna set this aside.

Let it cool.

And while it's cooling, I'm going to work on my dessert sandwiches.

Now to make those, I'm using a sweet bread.

I have some brioche here, and I'm doing some really thick slices.

I would say almost an inch, maybe half an inch.

Now, I'm using strawberries for my dessert sandwiches.

You could use grapes.

You could really get creative.

You could use kiwi.

That would look nice.

I'm just cutting the tops off and I'm keeping them whole.

We're creating a sort of effect with the visual of the sandwich when we cut through it.

I'm going to do three per sandwich.

Now I've made a bowl of whipped cream, a nice big bowl.

You want to whip it till it's got pretty stiff peaks.

You're going to slather it on.

Heaping piles of whipped cream.

What sounds better than that?

I'm going to do the same to the other side.

There's nothing better than really good whipped cream.

Okay, make a little space in the center there.

All right.

I'm going to lay my strawberries right in the center.

Side by side, one, two, three.

I'm going to put this right on top.

Turn it around.

I've got a serrated knife.

I'm going to very gently -- Okay, we're cutting through these here.

You've got this beautiful effect where you've got the strawberries right in the center, the cream all around.

Now I'm going to set these in the refrigerator and I'm going to go finish the tea eggs.

Okay, my liquid for my tea eggs has cooled down.

I'm going to add the remaining cup of water to cool it even further.

Then I'm going to strain it into a glass jar.

I've got my eggs in there already, nicely cracked.

I pour it right in and I cover them up and they're just going to sit like this for 24 hours.

The longer they sit in here, more potent the flavor will become.

And you can store them like this for up to five days.

When you're ready to serve them, you'll peel them and you can serve them right up on the table.

I like to cut them in half sometimes and open them up and show that soft yolk inside.

Maybe sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on top.

I'm gonna go pop these in the fridge.

As a final little touch, I have some baby vegetables that I harvested from my garden, so I've trimmed them.

Just the leafy part.

I'm keeping the root end because I love the way that looks.

I'm going to add them to a bowl.

I'm just going to add some simple olive oil.

This is a basil-infused olive oil, which I love the smell of.

You can get any kind of flavored olive oil.

I'm going to add just a touch of salt.

Sprinkle that around.

And I'm going to give it a really nice toss just to coat it uniformly.

Now I've done something kind of fun.

I have this little piece of wood and I put toothpicks inside, and from there I'm going to add my vegetables and we'll have what I call a little vegetable fence for the tea party.

People can just pull off their vegetables and have a little crunch and a little snack with that sweet sandwich and that salty, savory egg.

There I go.

And now I'm going to make my tea.

I've got some boiling water, and I've got this wonderful little tea cake that So-Han gave me.

I'm going to open it up.

Gonna drop it right into my teapot here.

Add some boiling water.

I'm going to set the table, and I'm inspired by all the things that Antonio taught me.

So I'm going to see if I can build on the amazing arrangement that we made together, and see if I can't add a little extra whimsy to the tea party table.

♪♪ I found branches with wild tendrils, flowers with flexible stems that can weave around the branches, ball moss that dropped from a tree, and expired insects that I found on a walk.

But the best part is that a special guest has arrived to help me finish decorating the table and most importantly, taste test the food.

>> ♪ They could say they've seen the highest mountain ♪ ♪ Bottom of the deepest sea ♪ ♪ But no one's ever seen, no one's ever seen ♪ ♪ Ever seen a love like this ♪ >> I hope we will continue to see more third spaces, that my daughter will know a world where there is in-person community just outside her front door.

I hope she finds beauty where others have missed it, and that she takes it in with her whole heart and then finds a way to gift it to others the way So-Han and Antonio have taken their gifts and created community and beauty for others to take part in.

I hope she'll stumble on a career by climbing the mountains, whether metaphorical or real, and connecting with people who are doing the things that make their heart sing.

And most of all, I hope she'll keep her sense of wonderment about it all.

>> ♪ They could dig up all the buried treasures ♪ ♪ Swear it's worth more than anything ♪ ♪ But no one's ever seen, no one's ever seen ♪ ♪ Ever seen a love like this ♪ >> To learn more about the topics featured on this episode, log on to GeorgiaPellegrini.com or follow along on Georgia's Facebook and Instagram pages for weekly "Modern Pioneering" adventures, tips, and recipes.

"Modern Pioneering" is made possible by... >> Welcome to Total Wine.

Doing okay?

>> My buddy says rosé all day.

>> My personal fave is this new French rosé.

>> Find wine, beer, and spirits from around the world at Total Wine & More.

>> At Muir Glen, we believe that organic farming benefits consumers, farmers and ecosystems.

>> And made possible by... ...and many other generous donors.

A full list is available at GeorgiaPellegrini.com.