The tyranny of more

and a recipe for an avocado and cucumber salad that is simplicity itself

“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

—Coco Chanel, iconic fashion designer

Think of Coco Chanel’s legacy and the image that may come to mind is ropes of dripping pearls, bows and pins and double Cs everywhere. Yes long before minimalism became a thing, Chanel was a firm advocate of less is more. A soupçon of embellishment, a camellia here, a hat there. Simplicity, Chanel opined, “is the keynote of all true elegance.”

This recent window display may well have given her a heart attack.

There’s much in life that might benefit from “taking something off”. Clutter in the house, in our closets, in our minds. For every thing, figurative or literal, that we add to our lives, something else gets pushed away, becomes out of focus. But sometimes just by pausing and acknowledging that one extra thing, we can also let it go.

Letting things go

One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in.

—Painter and furniture maker Francis Jourdain

I was reminded of this recently when we saw Dr. Andrew Huberman speak here in Toronto. A neuroscientist and podcaster, Huberman breaks down science into easy-to-digest but never dumbed-down concepts. As he talked about meditation, he reminded the audience that the goal is not to completely clear your mind and think of nothing. Rather, focus on your breath. When random thoughts inevitably enter your mind, acknowledge them, give them space to be, and then let them go.

That key step—to acknowledge the extraneous—can be a game changer. What it changes is this. You realise that not everything has the same weight or gravity. For sure some of those random thoughts or emotions have gravitas and deserve to be considered and processed. In their time and in the right moment. But not always in the here and now.

Avocado and cucumber salad

Yotam Ottolenghi, Simple

serves 6

Food, like fashion, benefits from less. The chef Wylie Dufresne credits Jean-Georges Vongerichten with showing him the value in taking things off a plate. “He always talked about two, three, four elements on a plate. That's it,” said Dufresne. “The more you put on the plate, the easier it is to hide. The more you take away, there's nowhere to hide—it has to be good."

On the other hand, Yotam Ottolenghi is not known for a “less is more” approach to cooking. His recipes famously layer on ingredients and spices to create truly memorable dishes. But Ottolenghi understands that we don’t always have time for that kind of cooking. That’s when he wrote Simple, with a clear mandate:

S: short on time

I: ingredients 10 or fewer

M: make ahead

P: pantry-led

L: lazy-day dishes

E: easier than you think

This salad is all of that. Simply combine the ingredients and serve. And, in the spirit of Chanel, I took one thing off and didn’t add the nigella seeds.

½ English cucumber, sliced diagonally

3 ripe avocado, thinly sliced

1 green chilli, seeded and thinly sliced

1 cup cilantro or parsley leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons lime juice, or to taste

Maldon or other flaky salt

Nigella seeds to garnish, optional

Put the ingredients in a lovely serving bowl, combine gently, taste for seasoning and adjust (more or less salt, lime juice, chilli), and serve.