Ryan Hidinger

Chef Ryan Hidinger and his wife, Jen, had just begun planning their Atlanta restaurant when Ryan was diagnosed with metastatic gallbladder cancer. In the year before he passed in 2014, their hospitality community came together and founded The Giving Kitchen; the non-profit organization that owns their now-lauded restaurant, Staplehouse, and provides emergency assistance to area restaurant workers facing unexpected hardship.

For a Spoonful created in memoriam, Hidinger-Kendrick sent her late husband’s favorite spoon to Brent. "This spoon belonged to my late husband," she explains. "He always gravitated to it as he cooked." She also sent Hidinger’s favorite foods to cook and eat, including the recipe for a stock that was one of his final meals. Brent gathered, composed, and photographed Taking Stock in Memories from her collection.

"I remember the time right after he passed, where I could only sit in the hallway overlooking the kitchen," Hidinger-Kendrick remembers. "I wasn't ready to step foot inside a place he and I held so sacred. It took a long time for me to find my own voice or position within my home kitchen. But when I did, I found comfort in using the tools he held so close to his heart, including this spoon. I think his piece offers outside-the-box creativity and youthfulness, and hope it provokes the notion that life is what you make of it."