This book, that I'm currently NOT reading is sitting on the mantle piece above my A/C, as a prized souvenir from my trip to NYC. Briefly, this book is a chronicle of the author's journey through the professional culinary world. He attends the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) the most influential cooking school in the US and cooks in the same kitchen as Michael Symon at Lola and the illustrious Thomas Keller at THE FRENCH LAUNDRY. LIKE OMG. Jealous? Me? No! ahem... So anyway, I skimmed a few pages and came across a quote that I feel like I must share because it so beautifully relates cooking to human nature in a way that I've never thought of.
"I had some basic information about how food behaves under specific circumstances and, more important to me, information about how the human personality behaves under those same circumstances. This after all was why cooking mattered. It had less to do with filling your stomach or pleasing your mouth than with connecting yourself to something more powerful and extraordinary than sensual gratifications."
I've never considered the kitchen dynamic of the food and the cook cooking that food in the same circumstances. Boiling. Steaming. Sweating. Sizzling. Cracking. Folding. Melting. Adjectives that I now see can be easily substituted for the chef under pressure.
Well of course cooking has always mattered. But maybe for a food culture that sold it's soul to the major fast food corporations and celebrity chefs selling their soul to the frozen food aisle, the author wants to remind the American public of the importance of cooking food for themselves. Cooking is more than just making delicious food or feeding yourself or family. It's about feeling something carnal and liberating. It's celebrating your independence. However small. That you, yes you, can be trusted to prepare a meal, alone in your home kitchen. That, for the wide eyed 7 year old girl that I once was, so entranced by an oven, a whisk, and basically all the magic that a kitchen can produce, was a personal taste of independence. The day I manned the kitchen alone. The feeling was exhilarating. I wanted more. And that's why this passage resonated with me so much. I get it. As with a voyage, we now know that it's not about the destination but rather the journey; so to is cooking more about self-discovery than the actual food.
Unless it's a brownie. Then it's all about the brownie.
