Are you a good cook?
To me, this question really makes no sense. At least in the way the current culture presents it. What’s implied in the question is if you’re sufficiently capable of producing some kind of cooked food that is palatable. And most of the times, the focus is not on the quality of the food or how the dish will impact the taster’s health. It’s about the texture and taste of the food, how pleasing and agreeable it is. And that’s where people get into trouble because it’s about taste at all cost. Modern society has made a circus around food and culinary experiences. Cooking competitions and show businesses and rare ingredients and restaurant businesses. For the sake of money, glamor and entertainment, not much else.
Back to the question of someone being a good cook. It’s like asking someone if he or she is good at breathing. Or good at brushing teeth or walking around. As newborn infants, we all had to learn how to breathe with our lungs. It was a new skill that we didn’t practice while being inside wombs. It was a completely new sensation and experience to breathe through our noses and have our alveoli expand with oxygen in the lungs. Uncomfortable at first. But most of us have become proficient at breathing unless you have health challenges. And if you do have trouble with breathing, you may understand how important breathing is better than others who take it for granted. Same goes for walking. We couldn’t walk for a while when we arrived in this world but we learned the skill, unless we are challenged anatomically. To me, cooking is a skill that everyone who is physically able must learn, just like breathing and walking, in order to live.
It begins with selecting and sourcing the right ingredients for the day. How are we feeling? Anybody in the family fighting a virus or facing an important day full of pressure and stress? What we eat that day should reflect the answers to these questions. Is there a specific occasion or is it a week day full of hustle and bustle of life? Is someone visiting or is it just us? Have we been leaning too heavy on carbohydrates or on some other food group in the last few days? How is everyone doing in terms of digestion? Anyone with gastritis? Constipation? The harder the demands of the day, the simpler and easier the food should be.
A good cook is someone who sacrificially loves the ones who eat the food that is cooked. Who will not cut corners when it comes to food preparation and planning. Who takes the time and energy, who understands the importance of food at home. And washes all the vegetables and meat and fish in salt water or vinegar water and prepares them and spends the time in the kitchen and prioritizes doing these tedious things for the sake of the ones who will benefit from eating the result of this labor. Soaking the beans and grains the day before. Peeling the garlic cloves. Fermenting homemade foods. Soaking and pressure cooking the beans rather than buying canned goods. Shaping home milled flour pasta one by one. Peeling each tomato and taking the seeds out. A good cook is someone who understands that every step in the kitchen can either make the beneficiaries healthier or sicker.
