What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?!

Cooking is oft touted to be magical and therapeutic. So many people have found solace in it during the pandemic. I personally sulk when I don’t have anything to cook. Cooking is magic because it transforms one form into another. Do you know what a grimoire is? A grimoire is a book of magic spells. A cookbook is like a grimoire. It contains a list of ingredients, their quantities and the yield you can expect. It also gives detailed instructions on how to produce the food that you have set out to make. It tells you the proportions the ingredients must be used in.

It tells you how much heat or cold to apply and how long to apply it for. Also gives you helpful tips, suggestions and even advise on how to render the perfect dish. The important thing to do here though is to be in a good mood because only most of the times ingredients are handled by hand and who’s to say that that your feelings don’t pass through the food and get into your body. Would you really want to be nourished by negative and toxic thoughts and intentions?

Cooking as therapy: Cooking requires patience. You need to know what needs to be cooked for how much time on a low, medium or high flame. All ingredients don’t cook at the same time. Some need more time than the others. For example, potatoes. They need more time to cook as compared to an egg. Similarly, if you apply a high heat or flame to all ingredients the result would be burnt food! Cooking needs you to slow down, be in the moment and savor not only the tastes and aromas but also the experience. Cooking has the power to change perceptions and give hope.

Cooking as an art form: I was discussing this blog with my mother and she pointed out that vegetable carving is also a beautiful rendition of cooking as an art form. Think ice sculptures, icing a cake and garnishes. As my late food production instructor used to say, you eat first with your eyes and then your mouth. Hence, a good garnish can make or break a dish. Food presentation is oh so important. It’s inspired a whole industry! I never thought about it but even cutting, chopping, dicing, and preserving food such as jams, jellies and pickles is an art form. The way a vegetable or meat is cut can determine the look, taste and the cooking time of the dish.

I was watching an interview of Varun Grover. Link to the same is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLDVBIO7X9Y he said something about cooking which really made an impression on me. He compared cooking to mandalas. Mandalas to those of us who don’t know is a Buddhist art form that represents the cosmos metaphysically. Apparently, the monks don’t keep mandalas for display. They make them and immediately dismantle it. Cooking he said is exactly that. You create something, you enjoy it by consuming it and then it’s gone. You can’t display or showcase cooking.

Cooking and I: My relationship with cooking has been a complicated one. I belong to a family of hoteliers. So, exposure to the best of the foods from around the world happened very early in life. In fact it inspired, a transcontinental trip! I went all the way to Africa to eat wild animals! Bred in captivity for this sole purpose of course...It also helped that I like to experiment and try new things and hence understanding of the dish, the ingredients, the process, the history always interested me. In fact, I pursued a course in hotel management where food production and bakery both theory and practical was something I learnt.

But did I wish to pursue a career as a chef? No. I remember that I was surrounded by young boys and girls who were aspiring to be chefs. I wasn’t one of them. I think I learnt cooking by osmosis! My mother would recount how she made something a certain way or instruct the cook. I never paid attention but perhaps my subconscious mind did. It recorded tips, tricks and secrets of the trade. Over time and especially as COVID struck I seem to have refined the art to an extent that if there’s a day that I don’t have to cook anything I feel bored and a little let down. I think it’s the sense of adventure, cooking provides that engulfs me.

I am mindful to stay out of the kitchen if I am not in a good mood, though, ironically, I could cook myself out of it! I hope this blog gave you good perspective on cooking and perhaps inspires a chef or a home cook at the least. Do you have it in you? It’s worth finding out...