Laine dreamed of one day opening an “everything restaurant”.  As she was half Chinese and half Indian, and her brother Mathew seemed half Italian as inferred from his food choices early in life, and she was raised in California with an inherently diverse food culture, one can imagine her pallet was especially broad.   She enjoyed such flavors, loving soy sauce fish to miniature broccoli tempura to chicken curry to to rice with mango pickle to cutlets to banana chips to sushi to french fried to vegan pizza to french fries to ice cream.   She was a fantastic cook, knowing how to make many dishes, and even making up her own methods – see “the smash method” for her way of making dumplings in the video section:

This smash method was invented earlier.  Here she is making puris with her ammachy and appachen.

Laine making carrots for supper:

She had an aesthetic sense about food – it needed to look good as well as taste good.  See her drawings of an egg, prior to cooking it:

Laine and Mathew harvesting tomatoes from our garden, sorting them.  She believed in fresh produce.

Laine making cookies for Santa

Her imagined restaurant had her as the chef and owner.  She would decide the menu, and it would have dishes from all over the world – the best of everything from everywhere.