Last night my sister-in-law sent me a text that said “I love how much joy you take in cooking.” I will admit, that even as I sometimes view dinner prep as one more chore in my life, it is definitely one chore I would not easily give up. I’ve been thinking today about why I like to cook. Mostly because I can’t understand how or why one would not enjoy cooking. I can only assume that a person who is not terribly good at it (or not confident in their skills) would not enjoy it. Obviously, there are many who would not enjoy the time it takes or the attention to detail that some recipes entail. I understand all of these things and I feel this way about other attention-to-detail-type activities.
My students often accuse me of suffering from ADD because of my random, spur-of-the-moment thoughts and general lack of focus. And, honestly, since I’ve been working on graduate classes, I’m starting to think there might be something to that accusation. I find it more and more difficult to read a paragraph straight through without re-focusing my mind 4-5 times. I’m getting more comfortable with planning assignments and papers in my head for several days before actually making myself sit down and do something. I also have a two-year-old and find his mere presence to be more demanding than any other thing I’ve known in life. However, when it comes to cooking, I have ninja-like focus. As contradictory as this sounds, I’m to a point in my cooking “career” that I feel comfortable ad libbing recipes and so I don’t even need this ninja-like focus.
I actually enjoy reading recipes. I also think this is a strange habit, but I like to sit down with cookbooks or cooking magazines and actually read them. I read the ingredients, the prep directions, the baking instructions, etc. I read recipes for things that I know my husband would never eat, like ceviche and melon coleslaw. I actually like to take note of how much of each ingredient goes into a recipe. I have no interest in biology or chemistry, but I am interested in the science of food. And I haven’t always been this way.
I think that as I started to have some success in the kitchen, my confidence grew. It is very helpful to have a husband who loves my cooking and always raves about even the simplest dishes. And this brings me to a second obsession I have. I love to cook for people. Specifically, I like it when someone requests a specific dish, but I can rarely get people to do this (other than the husband). I’ve even taken to feeding one of my co-workers. He’s a young bachelor and it occurred to me one day that he might like to partake in free lunches so that I could use up some leftovers. He was all about it and, like my husband, seems to really appreciate my cooking.... which only encourages me. Secretly I would like to provide him lunch daily, just as I would like people to come over to my house every other day so I could serve them dinner. Too bad it costs money to feed a crowd. I think I was meant to be some sort of short order cook. Leave it to me to find the only profession that actually pays less than teaching.
Mostly, however, I like the actual act of cooking. I love the smells (seriously, garlic and onions sautéing in olive oil, what could smell better?), I love the fact that cooking has an inherent reward at the end (eating the food and pleasing my family). I enjoy the sense of pride when I’ve experimented, added or changed ingredients, or invented something completely new and it actually tastes good. I love that it requires just enough focus that I can’t stress about work or bills – I can only cook. I love to try to recreate restaurant recipes and recipes I see on TV. I love to try new ingredients and new techniques.
On the flip side, I do not enjoy baking. I feel moderately interested in the baking of bread, but I do not really enjoy baking desserts. I don’t know why. Maybe because it is mostly mixing and you can’t taste as you go? I don’t like waiting for things to rise, bake, and cool. Instead, I prefer the chaos of 3 skillets sizzling and one pot bubbling over all at the same time!
3 comments:
We should open a restaurant...you cook, I'll bake! I L-O-V-E to bake, and I intend to try a new recipe every week this summer...no doubt you will be getting some of the leftovers of that endeavor! :)
Great! I looked at that recipe for the Milky Way cake again and considered it... talk about a guilty pleasure!
This book is like a dictionary for every single fish, meat, and vegetable you might ever want to cook. Every chapter starts with a description and preparation instructions. Then the chapter goes on to have a large number of possible recipes. I have made many of the recipes in the book and everyone of them is wonderful.
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