What it means and why there is nothing better
I believe that chefs, don’t just serve pretty looking and beautifully tasting food on a plate, we grow a garden of experience for our diner. If you’ve watched Matthew Moore’s (@urbanplough) 55-days-squash plantation growing in 3.40 minutes it would probably be a little easier to explain (http://vimeo.com/9410175). The first time I watched the video I was in awe. And that’s when I realized that cooking brings about the same feeling.
Cooking is creating.
Just like the careful hands that sowed the seeds, tended the plant and waited patiently for 55 days for it to grow into a tasty beautiful squash, so does the Chef carefully choose his ingredients and technique and with great skill and finesse, delivers a handcrafted edible story. This plate of food could tell stories of a movement or cause, religious piety, celebration, or of history between places and people responsible for creating the dish. You may even hear the crunchy or slurpy stories of unknown cuisine and cultures, the embracing of technology or the clinging on to classicalism.
This is what I’d like to believe is the soul of cooking is.
Since I’m just out of Culinary school, I’d like to believe that my cooking is like the squash seeds. I’ve just planted it. I’m definitely sure that it will take more than 55 days, maybe even 55 months or longer to cultivate that first meaningful plate of food. And that nurturing the crop would mean tireless hours and strenuous work; for which I am excited for.
Living in the technologically sound present it is easy to be inspired by renowned chefs all around the world cooking awe-inspiring food.