This was the question my spouse came up with when I asked, “do you have any burning question, about food, that I can address in my blog?” What made this an interesting question for me was wondering how other Chefs and cooks would answer a question like this. I also sent requests to a couple of my readers to see if they would share a photo of themselves cooking, since I already know they love to cook. See if you recognize yourself in some of the explanations.
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PattyCooks Reflects My Love of Cooking
Cooking is a very creative activitiy for me that involves all my senses. I hear food’s response to being introduced to hot oil, smell the various aromas of cooking ingredients, taste the melding of flavors, think about the impact of various spices or herbs on the dish, see the final plating, and eat while feeling the response in my body to the food.
- Occasionally those senses include the pain of cutting my finger, burning my arm, getting hot oil splatters on my face or in my eye, and setting a pot holder on fire. Even when these things happen, that is not my focus as I seem to deal with these accidents very “matter of factly” and continue with the cooking uninterupted.
This process of cooking is a temporary, and creative activity, that has a byproduct of taking care of my family and friends. How this manifests itself, is in my pleasure to cook for the monthly dinner parties we have. My feeling of warmth when people who are sick rely on me to help cook for them. And excitement when people identify what diet they are on or what allergies they have, knowing I will create a menu that they can eat without fear, or one that does not call out their diet restrictions. This means that it gives me a satisfaction and pleasure of knowing I am taking care of members of my community.
I appreciate rituals, familiar actions done in particular sequences that can be calming during times of chaos. Mise en Place occurs first in the kitchen, as one gathers all the tools and ingredients needed for a dish. I call this the time of walking, where I go around locating everything I need and placing it on the counter. Then comes the rituals of prepping ingredients. For veggies or herbs, the ingredients are washed, bad parts cut off, and the ingredient is cut (snapped, chopped, diced, minced, etc) according to need, and placed in a bowl.
- Many, many steps and decisions are made ritually before cooking even starts. In fact, many Chefs I have spoken to have remarked that cooking is often the least time intensive part of the whole experience of preparing food.
When actually in the kitchen working, time passes and I get into a groove that is very responsive to what is happening now, around me, and it takes my whole body’s attention. Eating too takes the whole body, from appreciating the food, to chewing as it releases flavor, to the feeling of fullness and satiation. So the process of cooking and eating is a meditation, a practice of being in the now.
- Generally, it is only after I sit to eat that I feel my feet hurting, my knees and back aching, and find a new burn spot on my hand. So while I am actually in the moment of cooking I appear to be mainly in my head and senses, but not quite in the rest of my body. Not sure that makes sense, but it seems to be true for me.
Certain foods, specialty utensils, and traditional meal prepping provides me a connection point to my cultural identity and history. When I make Spätzle in my German pasta tool I am connected to my Oma who had a similar one, when using my very old veggie peeler I think of my Mutti as this was once hers. When teaching my son how to make Blau Kraut I feel a pride of passing on the Bavarian tradition and history shared with me from my Oma.
Cooking allows me to be both an artist and a scientist and it thus speaks to my whole brain. When I cook for a dinner party and have to take everyone’s diet or allergies into account, I am playing a research scientist. I have to find out what that person can and cannot eat, and what to focus on to keep them healthy; for rarely is a diet or allergy just about what one cannot eat, often it is also about what is recommended to eat. Then I play with spices, herbs, colors, textures, aromas, etc. with the intent to make that particular dish taste as good as I know how to make. I, in essence, become fully engaged.
Finally, I love cooking because I love to eat well prepared food. When ordering or going out, I hate to be served food that I feel I can do better myself. This does not mean I am a great cook, but that the Chef creating the food I eat at restaurants has to minimally be better at it than my own creations. Otherwise why go out to their place, if my cooking is so much better? Luckily, there are lots of very good Chefs in my region, they are steeped in their cuisine, creative, and knowledgeable about flavor.
Fellow Food Bloggers Reasons
TheStoneSoup writes that they love cooking because it is fun and delicious, good for both the body and soul. And they admit it is also for the praise, for when an eater finds a dish wonderfully amazing praise follows.
OutWitTrade writes that some people love cooking because it provides them with a self-satisfaction that they can take care of themselves, and that they are eating healthily since they made it from scratch. Why I like this post is that they have gathered quotes from many sites and bloggers speaking about their love of cooking. It is wonderful to read like-minded people and learn their reasons.
- For some with eating disorders, I learned, being able to control the food prep, make nutritious decisions, and use cooking as a type of Food Therapy (working with nutritionists and dietitians) is important to their continuing health.
Then I looked at ChefTalk to see how self-identified Chefs consider this question and found that some had an enjoyment of immediate praise about their recipes, while some appeared addicted to the chaos, fast pace, and adrenaline rush in preparing food during peak hours in a restaurant. For some it clearly was the control of the kitchen linked with pride that comes from customers or food critics praise.
Others wrote that cooking and running restaurants ran in the family and they were just a member of a long line of people who cooked for others. One person indicated they thought cooking was a type of religion to them, that they thought about bringing people together over a table of food as a higher calling to heal the world. Finally, a handful said cooking is something they were just born to do.
There is an idea in TheMedium that jumped out at me. They write, there is another reward of cooking that fascinates and motivates me: it is excellent training in practical magic. Here they are considering cooking as a chance to practice the esoteric art of manifestation — bringing something from the imagination into physical reality. To explain, imagine a perfect dish and then your attempt to make that dish, perhaps following a recipe or improvising; you are the magician concocting that dish for someone to consume.
- This reminded me that I did write a post on Cook as Alchemist which links directly to this idea of transforming ingredients into a nutritional and pleasing dish.
I also looked at Reddit for answers. One person was very clear that he loved to cook because he needed and loved to eat, and between the option of eating anything for fuel or eating good food as enjoyment, he chooses good food, namely his own. In agreement, a person responded that eating was a hobby, so cooking was important; preferring to eat and share delicious meals than paying others to cook mediocre food. Another line of discussion was that cooking was their way to show love and compassion. Someone in agreement indicated that they would go so far as to say cooking good food for others was more important than eating it themselves. It is a way to help the world create community.
Then I spoke with a number of people who read my blogs and found they have a few more reasons, including the pandemic.
The first person said that with the pandemic they had to learn to cook, especially as the restaurant delivery services started to jack up prices. While they started cooking from recipes, they found out how much they liked a certain cuisine and started to learn more, then filled their pantry with the required spices and herbs, and are now confident in making their favorite food to share with others. They have come to love cooking as a good way to fill up too much time stuck at home alone.
Conclusion
Some people may say there are as many reasons people love cooking as there are cooks. But I think when looked at in detail, all the reasons are some combination of what is written below. Differing words, perhaps, but the same sentiment.
- Love that cooking proves to others I am an adult, and self-sufficient.
- The acts of cooking is a meditation, provides rituals, creates healing, or compliments therapy.
- The act of prepping + cooking is sharing love, reclaiming culture, and remembering family.
- This is one way I can contribute to the betterment of the world, one nutritious dinner at a time.
- Love cooking as it brings family, friends, and community together.
- If I have to eat, I want to love what I eat, so I make it myself.
- Being a cook is familial, a passion, the only thing I know how to do, or something I am good at.
- Cooking serves an inner need for control, creativity, satisfaction, compliments, etc.
- When cooking I become an artist, scientist, therapist, alchemist, magician, etc.
- I love cooking in a restaurant setting cause I enjoy fast paced chaos, controlled adrenaline, and achieving major goals at the end of each day.
- Cooking leads me to feel pride in my skills, satisfaction in my dishes, and accomplishment in a recipe well done.
- Cooking fills my time in a way that is healthy.
What am I missing, what would you add?
—Patty
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