honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, April 9, 2003

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Nothing gets between cook and kitchen

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

In a report in the Los Angeles Times recently about the convenience-meals trend (using prepared products to create semi-home-cooked meals), one food writer said that her idea of a convenience product was buying peeled shallots at Trader Joe's.

Oh, sister, I am so there. Only with me, it's peeled garlic — I only wish there was someplace here that sold peeled shallots.

People always ask food writers if they cook a lot. I've grown used to the incredulous look that registers when I answer, "Every day." And by that I mean I cook pretty much from scratch every day.

Those frozen meals and those new boxed dinners I've been reviewing for this column lately? I understand how helpful they are in these overly busy times, and I'm with Mario Batali when he says that anything that gets you into the kitchen is better than anything that leads to a fast-food supper. But those prefab meals aren't for me.

I cook six nights out of seven whether or not I'm testing a recipe. My idea of a great weekend activity is cooking for friends. I cook even when I come home late in the evening, when my husband is already asleep and only the cats would know if I resorted to Lean Cuisine.

I cook because it feeds me — spiritually as much as physically. Chopping onions, mashing garlic, building a sauce or puzzling through a recipe is my relaxation and my joy. My husband waters his garden when he needs some thinking time, some get-away-from-the-pressure time. I cook.

Other activities also feed my soul — doing various kinds of handwork, craft projects, writing fiction. But cooking offers almost immediate results, and it's the thing I know best how to do in all the world.

In the kitchen, I can recover feelings of competence that the world has beaten out of me in the course of the day. In the kitchen, only the most skilled intimidate me.

And though cooking is a largely solitary activity, it's connected with the people I love. My grandmother, and later my mother, gave me this gift. Grandma taught me cooking basics, and Mom, when she went out to work, placed her confidence in me at a young age, covering the refrigerator with scribbled notes about how to get the evening meal started. Soon, I was dispensing with her directions.

During my difficult teen years, it was something I could do that was sure to earn approval and buy a little peaceful time in a fractious family. Later, cooking became part of the journalism job I love.

So when you ask if I cook a lot, the answer is "yes." And no matter what happens — even if they perfect those Star Trek replicators — I don't plan to stop.