Cooking With Love!

by Diana Silva

Each week I remind my radio show listeners to remember to add the most important ingredient to every recipe they make, their love! I believe that we can alter the way our food tastes based on the energy and intention we have while we cook and that’s why it’s impossible to duplicate some of our favorite recipes. I’m convinced that the yummiest homemade meals are filled with the home chefs love.

I grew up cooking with my mama Rose, and she taught me how to make more than 100 of her delicious Mexican recipes. I’ve made some of them like her yummy Spanish rice thousands of times, and I've perfected many of her other delectable recipes too. They smell and look exactly like my Mama’s dishes, but when I take a bite, although so close to hers, my taste buds know that she didn’t help make it. There is always something missing, and I've concluded it’s her unique ingredient, her love.

I’m grateful that I learned to make her savory recipes, and they bring back so many fond memories of our cooking together, but I always long for that unique flavor only my sweet mama Rose could add. I have no scientific data to document my beliefs and findings, but it’s what I believe.

After many years of cooking, I've noticed that my recipes taste the best when I’m preparing them from a place of joy. When I’m stressed out, anxious, sad, or regretful, my dishes are subpar, and it's also when I experience most of my cooking disasters like over salting, undercooking or one of my worst mishaps in the kitchen, burning myself.

Since I’ve embraced my cooking passion in the last couple of years, I’ve met so many other home and professional chefs who pour their love and joy into their recipes, and I can taste it in their food!

So this year, as you cook, remind yourself that whatever you’re making whether it’s a simple salad or something a little more challenging like our chicken mole, food gives us energy and life, so proudly add your love!