I’ve been Cooking (literally)
A couple months ago, I was binge-watching Culinary Class Wars. In between work hours and sleep, I made time to make as much progress on the show as I could. When I got to the episode that introduced the challenge for the top 8 remaining chefs, I finally paused.
The challenge was: “Make your life dish.” Essentially, make a dish that represents your life.
After seeing the prompt, before the chefs started cooking, I paused the video and paced around my room for a bit. After a little while, I opened my notebook and started drawing. It was an idea of a dish that I would like to make if I was given that prompt.
It should be noted that I was not cooking much at that time, if at all. Though I have appreciated the practice of cooking since I was young, I didn’t develop any real habits of cooking for fun until a certain point in my life. The sketch and notes around the drawings were almost purely conceptual without much specifics on ingredients or cooking method.
Since young, however, I did appreciate cooking, not only because I love food. I appreciated it as an art form. Watching a few Food Network shows, YouTube videos about chefs and restaurants, and shows similar to Culinary Class Wars had me appreciating the intentions behind each chef’s creations and how their dishes affect their consumers. I found it akin to the philosophies of acting. What is your intention, what kind of affect do you intent to place on your scene partner, and how will you do it?
Maybe it was because of heightened inspiration from Culinary Class Wars. Maybe it was because I’ve been thinking about picking up cooking for too long since I was young. Maybe it was because I got sick of Chipotle. Recently, I’ve been cooking much more frequently at home and enjoying it.
Not only am I enjoying cooking more recently, I’m also approaching it with a more positive attitude. In the past, a part of what bothered me during cooking was waste. However, I tackled it by working to develop a habit of cooking more often to not let ingredients go to waste as much. Cooking became much more fun that way. I took it one step further and tried coming up with ideas to save parts that usually go to waste. After using all the broccoli florets, I tried to find out how I can make something delicious with the broccoli stem. I shaved the outer layer, seasoned it, and grilled it like a steak. It was surprisingly good. I also tried making noodles by making long shavings from the stem.
Although it comes with more failures than I’d like to admit, I find myself avoiding cooking by following recipes to some extent. More often than not, unless I’m trying something completely new off the top of my head, I look at a recipe once and try loosely following it by memory. Though I admit it’s only speculation, perhaps I believe that maybe it helps me be more present with my actions so I can understand what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. At least for now, I find cooking more fun that way.
Cooking is just like any artistic practice. Try, accept the failures, learn from it, and move forward. I believe it is also as artistic as any other art form, and I hope to reach a point where I can say I can make art with my cooking.
While chatting with my roommate, I once brought up that I want to do an omakase at home one day, maybe invite some friends or community members. I’m looking forward to it.
