Jul 11, 2010
Why Cook Well.
We eat because we have to.
Civilization is nothing more than a ten thousand year old
human experiment to test the freakish theory that mankind could eat
without being eaten. Four million years earlier, our
australopithecine ancestors crawled down from some God-forsaken
trees to run with sweaty persistence after the meaty goodness left
for scavenger animals.
This, they called a meal.
The world we have inherited is only a savannah away from that
prehistoric reality. We have to eat to survive, but it’s what
we eat and the quality of that food which gives our lives pleasure
and meaning.
The question our human experiment should answer is “Why should
we cook well?”
If survival is the purpose of culinary consumption then what
benefit is served by eating food of higher quality, flavor and
beauty? Would not our human condition be sufficiently served
through the daily ingestion of ground chicken speckled cheese
spread sprayed from a can?
We eat because we have to, we cook because we
care.
Through trial and tribulation (and falling out of trees)
modern man has come to understand that a meal is much more than a
life sustaining substance. A meal is a celebration of life:
it is an expression of art and love and a way to communicate
through preparation, presentation and sharing.
We eat because we have to, we cook because we care, we share a
meal because a meal is a manifestation of our passion for
life and each other.
To cook well is to take a food source of vegetable or meaty
goodness and convert it into something of pleasing sensations of
taste, smell, and texture. It is an act of purest altruism, a
performance of sincerity and joy.
Why would a self diagnosed intelligent species take the time
and energy to prepare food for the culinary delight of others?
Why bother with the triviality of recipes and technique when
rawhide shoved into pile of burning coals would sufficiently make
food more digestible and a better energy source?
Because we know, instinctually, that life is short, though
long enough. We understand that our mortality is wondrous
thing, allowing us the luxury of savoring the good things brought
before us.
The art of preparing food, and creating from it a meal goes
beyond the act of cutting, slicing, baking, boiling or frying: it
is the culmination of a ten thousand year in progress experiment
where mankind is learning that he might not only eat without being
eaten, but that he can cook and care, share and love and live our
lives to the top.
We eat because we want to, we cook because we love.
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