Comment by Alice M Yaxley on 5th mo. 5, 2009 at 5:55am

Hello Shaun, it's great to make your acquaintance here. I thought you might be really local to me for a minute, but no it's Birmingham Alabama in the U.S.! (I am near Birmingham in the U.K.)

I'm not great at following cookbooks but I was told when learning to cook that 90% of cooking is confidence in your taste and ability. I hope what I cook isn't too awful. Havind confidence in my ability to taste what is good helps me be more conscious.

I love what I just read on your blog about learning to eat consciously, that's something I am keen to learn more about as well. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

Comment by Tony Breda on 5th mo. 5, 2009 at 11:33pm

Shaun,
I've been a Chef for 25 years and in my experience, great food, great anything is an expresssion of love. If the highest expression of God's love is the creation of life, then our sustaining and enriching life (cooking) is an extention of that love. Good cooking is a divine gift, as is good singing, good listening, good cookbook reading and every other goodness we experience.

At the same time, bad cooking is also a gift from God. How we react is our gift back. Do we learn from it? Do we act with kindness towards the cook in need of improvement? Bad cooking can inspire us to teach good technique, examine what went wrong, manifest compassion and appreciate the times when our daily bread really rocked our world.

In the end, all of our experiences, good and bad, are gifts from God.

In the Light,

Tony

Comment by parise on 5th mo. 9, 2009 at 9:35am

sometimes when i cook i get so centered, so relaxed, everything just flows. i make decisions that surprise me. i make choices in ingredients that i might not make if i were more "in my head". i feel really connected to spirit when this happens. it feels like meeting for worship with attention to cooking. i feel blessed when i am able to share this food with my friends and family because it feels like sharing a blessing. i seldom follow cook books although i will look at pictures and ingredient lists. tony is right about everything being a gift from god, but maybe a real good cook has more practice accepting those gifts and becoming one with the giver of those gifts while in the kitchen and maybe that is something you can taste.

Comment by Deanna Nipp-Kientz on 5th mo. 31, 2009 at 12:23am

I think the ability to follow cookbooks IS a certain divine je ne sais quois.

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