“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” — Thomas Keller
While I try not to repeat topics, there’s always another adventure when it comes to my efforts to cook. I’ve talked about comfort food, delegating holiday meals, and my favorite Halloween candy… but wait, there’s more! This past week, I had a few other experiences around food, specifically learning something new and sharing ideas with others. Any day you get a chance to discover a new skill or have a new experience is a good one, and for me, yet again, it was about food.
We can look at food as just fuel — we eat so we can function, right? Of course, it’s more than that for most people. Unless you’re ordering a lot of takeout or delivery, part of having a meal means planning and making it. This has historically been a struggle for me. Not the takeout part, I’m actually a little TOO good at that, but the part where I have to plan meals that are more than a jar of sauce, a box of ‘sketti, and a bagged salad.
This week’s culinary adventures involved my once-yearly dinner duty at my badminton club. On Friday nights, members gather to share a meal, and everyone takes turns feeding the group. Usually, a couple of families are assigned together and share the work. Cooking at my own house is challenging enough, but making something appealing for a crowd that might not realize what a disaster I can be is a new level of stress.
My part of the meal was the appetizers, so Pinterest came to the rescue. We chose a Valentine’s theme, and I devised a Caprese salad, but smaller and served in pastry shells. I cut out bits of mozzarella in heart shapes and trimmed basil leaves to fit. The pastry shells, frozen in a box, did not turn out exactly as the package described. Still, heart-shaped cheese is fun, right? The rest of the meal was excellent, especially the chocolate mousse with orange zest, made by a much more talented club member.
After spending a few days planning, shopping for food, and creating part of that meal, I had the chance to help a friend who is a chef/restaurant owner teach a cooking class. My part was being the dish runner in the commercial kitchen of a tech school. Spending a couple of hours in a “dish pit” is a good way to gain new respect for restaurant workers and good shoes.
In both efforts, I found some new recipes, got about 10,000 steps in from running around a kitchen that’s 1,500 square feet, and learned a few cooking hacks. Did you know that putting a paper plate over a stand-mixer beater when you attach it keeps the stuff in the mixing bowl from flying out and going up your nose?
I’m not sure I will ever be the person who can add soul to a recipe. Usually, I settle for not needing the fire department, an ambulance, or a shop vac that can handle broken glass. There was a lot of “soul” in these meals, though, and I learned that it doesn’t necessarily have to come from the cook or the food.
It can come from the shared stories and laughter that happen along the way to creating a meal. It can be found in the cooperation of a dozen students, all learning together and getting to know each other. It can even come from screwing up a recipe so badly that the finished product looks like it could take first prize in a “kitchen fail” contest. Did you know that when you try to make a salmon mousse but you leave the skin on the fish, it resembles the rocky surface of Mars?
My kitchen skills will always be hit or miss, and my food is usually pretty basic, but honestly, so what? I have accidentally set fire to cookies that weren’t even in the oven (Pro Tip: don’t leave a pan with parchment paper next to a gas burner) but no one was hurt. A little music on the stereo and some good friends to share a meal with will always be worth the struggle. Bon Appetit!
Brenda Kelley Kim has lived in Marblehead for 50 years, and is an author, freelance writer, and mother of three. Her column appears weekly.