Cooking Philosophy Simmered Down
When I am in the process of cooking, I make a mess. Although I try to clean and put things away as I go, the end result is always counters full of the meal's aftermath. There's a drop of light green olive oil puddling on white tile countertops. Skins of garlic and purple onions crowd behind wooden cutting boards. Tomato sauce will no doubt harden into red dollops to be scraped off cook tops and silver pans. Needless to say, this mess takes a lot of scrubbing. But I never get discouraged, because in the end, I am actually cooking and cleaning the what lies in the heart of life.
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No matter how much my family will say to me in the kitchen, "you're making such a mess!", I know that at the table I'll hear "this tastes amazing," and "you are such a good cook." To me, that is the ultimate reward, well worth the price of cleaning counters and lambasting pots and pans with hot suds. To cook well, you have to allow for three ingredients that aren't found in the grocery store: time, mess, and loving attention to the food. Put these three things in every recipe, add a few hunks of garlic, onions, and a dash of salt and pepper, and you'll be guaranteed to have a happy family meal.
I am far from being a master chef, but now cooking in my six or seventh kitchen, I can say I'm beginning to simmer down into a cooking philosophy. For anyone who wants to make wonderful meals, time is the first element to start with. People who think "I just don't cook" or "I don't have time" won't ever get started if they don't allow themselves to. Or worse, others rush through the meal preparation and then wonder why the end result is less than satisfying. From personal experience, I can say that any burnt dish, or drawn blood from a chef's knife has been the result of haste in the kitchen. Slow down. It is better to eat plump, juicy shrimp at seven, than rubbery, chewy ones at 6. Plan the meal well before you are ready to eat, and start cooking at least an hour before you are hungry whenever possible. Then the cooking experience can become relaxing and nourishing in itself, even more so sometimes than the food you produce.
But what about all that mess? In his book The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, Zen chef Edward Espe Brown makes an astonishingly simple, but meaningful point. He says, "cooking makes cleaning possible, cleaning makes cooking possible." From washing your hands in preparation to wiping the sink after clean up, time spent in the kitchen should not be viewed as a chore. It is a purposeful, life-sustaining cycle, as Brown suggests, an ecosystem all to its own. Not worrying about the mess during cooking helps you concentrate more on the food. Then, after the meal, all that wiping, washing, and drying is tremendously good for you. You work off the delicious food just eaten while readying the space for the next enjoyable meal's creation. The kitchen is the center of the home, and as such should be bright and smiling. So go ahead and make the mess. Give your hands all the more reason to clean up and create a room of renewal in your home every day.
When we are cooking, it is important to note what we are thinking about. Do not allow your mind to wander back to the office or anywhere else outside of the kitchen. In my own experience, my meals turn out best when my attention is solely dedicated to the food. I don't leave the room and wait for a timer to tell my ears when the food is done. Instead I look at the clock and remember to check the food with my eyes and my taste buds after enough minutes have gone by. I try not to do more tasks than I have hands for. Unless you're an octopus, it's very difficult to chop carrots while stirring the soup and flipping the bacon. Instead, check the ingredients list first and make sure everything is out and accessible. Then do the prep for each individual ingredient like crushing garlic, mincing cilantro, and sauteeing green peppers and white onions together. Then take care of any dressings or marinades making sure your swirling of olive oil, cumin, and lime juice has its own bowl put aside for it. The main dish should get the most attention. If the chicken needs to marinate, let the meat soak up the flavors well before the black char of the grill seals them in. If you work steadily and methodically, and keep your mind on the task at hand, not only are you improving the food, but you are improving yourself.
As cliche as it may sound, good cooking requires love. Things like time, messiness, and attention are the same ingredients present in the relationships we have with our loved ones. Bonds between family and friends do not appear instantly and can sometimes get messy. If we aren't giving the people we care about our full attention, they notice and the friendship suffers. The same is true for food. With cooking we can practice these skills, and become better spouses, parents, children, and friends. The best cooks in our lives are always the ones who put the most attention into the food they serve and love best those with whom it is shared.
chef, cooking, family, kitchen, love, meals, philosophy, relationships 
Reader Comments (1)
I love reading this as I clean my kitchen today in preparation for the holiday baking and of course, Thanksgiving. Since I have limited counter space, I try to clean as I go or dump as many things as I can in the dishwasher. I'd much rather cook than clean, and isn't that what the dishwasher is for?