Why do I cook?
Michael Ruhlman has been addressing an important question on his blog (Ruhlman.com): Why do we cook?
I’m cooking a lot now because I’m in culinary school, but what led me to finally make a real career choice and seek training in culinary arts was that after I stopped working, and left to my own devices, I failed to make any other choice, but found myself cooking on a daily basis.
What drove me to cook then, and the basis for choosing a life that will without question revolve around food, is a question with so many answers that I can hardly decide which one to describe first.
I started cooking after I left my job because I didn’t have any reason left not to. I didn’t cook as much while I was working because I felt always rushed for time, and to satisfy the time vs. hunger balance I wound up making a lot of quick and easy meals – from scratch as I was able. Being a full time stay at home mom afforded me the time to plan and explore, which resulted in more elaborate food adventures and a constant expansion of my skills and knowledge.
I was motivated to cook once the time was available because I viewed it as my new job description – feeding my family well was part of what I understood to be my contribution to family life in lieu of money. I wanted to eat well, and I wanted a kid who doesn’t throw a fit when you feed her something other than chicken tenders and PB&J. While these are simple goals, they require a lot of food-focused effort.
My friend Elizabeth Willse recently posted a review of Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. This book of reflections from writers and foodies about what they eat when they’re alone is now on my plan-to-read list. Her review got me thinking about the things I like to cook, and the completely separate category of what I like to eat when I have only myself to think of and/or don’t feel like cooking. I eat more bread and Camembert or triple creme cheeses than any one person probably ought to, but then even the cheeses I choose often have identities defined by where they come from or what they are made of.
If it were just about the food, I wouldn’t have pursued a structured culinary education, and I wouldn’t be writing this post today. By now my constant search for patterns and meaning is no secret to anyone who would be reading this entry. A fellow student once asked me, “Can’t you just be cooking food?” I can’t. I cook and I eat not for the love of food alone, but because I became aware of the experience of food, beyond the flavor to the story that starts in the ground and ends on my plate, through eating; I’m here learning what I learn, doing what I do and planning my future moves because I want to be an active author in that story.
When is a carrot just a carrot? It never is. It’s always a note in a chord in a song, no matter how simple or complex a song, and it’s a note with context and history and endless lifetimes of associated meaning that is viewed from different angles when used in different ways.
I cook because when I do, I feel connected to what I eat, to the environment that produced it, to who I am and who I will be as a result of the eating and the cooking.
Sphere: Related Content
Since you’re one of the Tribe now, consider the principle of hiddur mitzvah, which means to adorn/embellish/beautify the way you fulfill mitzvot. You see it all the time: singing a prayer to a lovely melody instead of plain speech, or using a beautiful mezzuzah case instead of an austere one. The scholars say that choosing to do this not only glorifies the practice, but makes the person more conscious of her actions in doing so.
You are doing the same with food–not only making it better through your care and attention, but making yourself more aware of everything that goes into it. It’s an essential step of building an “I-Thou” relationship with the everyday world.
If France doesn’t work out for you (and no reason why it shouldn’t) I can so see you at someplace like Stone Barns Center
( http://www.stonebarnscenter.org/ ).
*hugs* We should talk soon!
YIPPEE! You’re writing again. I like the way you write, so I’m happy with it.
And, I like why you cook. And I like why I cook… But you’re a few steps ahead of me (both with the cooking for others and in what you CAN cook with competence), so I’m just movin’ along at my pace.
noelle´s last blog ..Chicks and Knives… OH MY!