radical kitchen

I’m supposed to be doing my math homework right now. But radical ideas are swimming around in my head (and note that typing is slow since the “a” key is broken on my computer and my little finger has to trust that hitting empty air will, in fact, cause a “a” on the screen). I look out my apartment window at the bright green leaves of the Green Belt. I think about how I’ve always wanted to change the world.

How can I do that with a Le Creuset (which I don’t actually own, but I’m keeping the theory here, huh?) and a $20 whisk (which I now have)? I am blessed with creativity for sure, but it crosses my mind today that I may be blessed more with idealism and myopia. Some people who know me have also considered this Stubborn As A Mule combination. I can’t argue with this. The truth of my resemblance to this animal has almost been captured in photographs, it is so true. With this being revealed to you, let’s get back to the original question.

Why do I think I can save the world with a $20 saucepan, stainless steel skillet, and whisk?

My stubborn instinct like a mule says to tell you: “Because I CAN”. But that would be rude, and you may never read me again. Let Chef Mule explain to you how we, my dear army of chefs, are going to radically change the world for the better.

Cooking is the way to the Heart
The heart heals everything.

The way to anyone’s heart is through their stomach. I rationalize this in part through my belief in behavioral evolutionary psychology. Before I realized that this is very much the kind of psychologist I am (or will be when I graduate), I was validating both child and adult behaviors in patterns of behavior among different apes and mammals. The fine line between enjoyment and addiction

For us mammals, food initiates the bond with our mothers. Food=breast=mother. NONE of these things can be separated for the infant. The desire to breastfeed has as much to do with the desire for closeness as it does with hunger. We develop the same hormone releases when we experience a good satisfying meal as when we feel the skin of someone we adore. These correlations will continue throughout our lives. That is why food addiction is a profound problem for all of us, it is paramount. Not getting what you need in the way of bonding or intimacy can be found, hormonally, in enjoying food.

However, let’s get away from the negative issues and look at healing ourselves and our communities with food.

You start reading every day about these crazy cool things I’m doing here in my little apartment in Austin, Texas. You see cooking isn’t just for scruffy girls and bald middle-aged men (who never go out (and my apologies to these two groups of people, I think they’re both very sexy)). You may cook sometimes, and you may cook well, but do you go at it like an artist? Do you laugh at yourself? Do you invite people to help you, or just watch and talk? Do you bring food to your neighbors or do you think they will think you are weird?

Preparing food mindfully (not even like *buddha* mindfulness, just the idea that you want to please someone and yourself by the time you’re done), sharing (both the wins and those meals where you throw it away) trash and go for a latte instead) ), go slow enough at the table to revere natural flavors and stay in touch with the seasons on your cutting board…THIS can heal us all. You don’t have to be the one to cook either. You can be the dining room. The diner has a special role, as there are often more diners than chefs at any given party. You, the eaters, are the ones we cannot live without. The look on your face, the small or loud noises from deep in your chest as you consume and feel what we meant when we did… you are the soil and the sunlight for our most sacred crops. You are the ones willing to take a chance with us at the helm.

“Preparing food mindfully, sharing it, going slow enough at the table to reverence natural flavors, and staying in touch with the seasons on the cutting board…THIS can heal us all.”

The kitchen is a place of service to others. There are many chefs who aspire to greatness because it’s like being a rock star, it’s like controlling the wishes and desires of a society to be a top chef. But these aren’t chefs to me, they’re rock stars who ended up with a palette instead of a voice. Let’s repeat, the kitchen is a place of service. It is where we dream of making another person feel good. It is where we pay attention to what hurts and what excites. It’s where we think grandly about making love to everyone over a bowl of soup, a rare seared tuna steak, or the perfect sauce. The warm glow is addictive, the scents intoxicating, the work a tuned dance, and the end result…art and service.

This is a radical change. Uniting communities. Provide experiences for others and share experiences with others. I love going out to eat. I love how some people love to go shoe shopping.

Experiencing someone else’s ideas about combination and presentation is like watching a good movie. However, going out to eat is not going to promote this idea of ​​community. Have dinners where things are grown locally (if possible), where a friend or acquaintance cooked for you, where there is a hell of a lot less waste than a restaurant, where your take-home boxes are better off being reusable containers, where the people sit on the couch afterwards and make plans for revolution of any kind… HERE IS WHERE IT IS.

I’m not interested in inspiring you to cook what I’m doing. I am very interested in inspiring you to feel as I do about the importance of food. Knowing and understanding it both for its base value and for the value it can have in creating a different kind of place to live. I am a complete food snob. I also work on a budget most of the time and take shortcuts or do things faster because there are three kids to feed.

I am interested in your energy, that you are in the kitchen (which is a place of great service to others) and that your heart shoots out of its cage, that your mind feels clear and agile, that your body relaxes and that your love own increase. great steed and taking off with you on it. This is your task and it must be done…

because you have been recruited to save us all.