There is something about cooking that has an appeal to me beyond the simple satisfaction of making something that tastes, looks or smells inviting. I have been cooking since I was a kid. Sometimes extravagant sometimes complicated, but usually just things that I want to eat. I don’t often use recipes as more than guide posts unless I’m making something specific and complex for the first time, and on those occasions, I almost never feel the appeal I’m talking about here.
What I’m talking about is when I cook something I want to eat, or I want to feed to my family or friends, I get a feeling about what I want the dish to be or how I want the components of the meal to relate. When this happens, I rarely remember what I’m putting in or in what quantities. I cook by feel and to achieve an end result. At those times, what I make contains a part of me, my spirit or some aspect of my intention that is deeply rewarding and satisfying to me.
I would never want to work in a professional kitchen because I am certain that this feeling would disappear from my cooking at work, and probably also from my cooking at home. This is a private part of my that I get to share with my loved ones. The thing I’m talking about here is a sort of mind reading where I make something I believe the eater will enjoy. Its also a sort of thought projection where I want the eater to experience something special or unique in the meal that I have envisioned as I cooked.
It feels rewarding to make something that people enjoy, but it feels even better to have successfully pulled together things sometimes unrelated to make a new creation that might surprise, or slightly confuse, but always pleases. My joy of cooking is, in a micro cosmic way, manipulating my universe by pulling and pushing ingredients and intentions into a new creation.
