Cooking....is like breathing

Cooking is, for me, like breathing.

Need a soup? All I need is tomatoes, rosemary, rice and some beans to make you a really nice homey soup. I know because I made one recently that had my co-workers each consuming two bowls.

When I am unhappy, frustrated, joyful or can’t think straight, I can always find solace in my kitchen.

I see all this fancy cooking on TV, yet I myself have always subscribed to a more simplistic style. Rustic, if you will. I feel that you can take very simple, earthy ingredients and make magic.

Do you know why your muffins fall? You over mixed them! As my friend Dara says ‘muffins like to be lumpy.’ This is true of many things. It is so easy to over salt, over mix, overdo.

I take comfort that I am not the only professionally trained individual who wants to make and eat the basics. If you can’t do a nice whole chicken, or a properly cooked steak, how on earth can I trust you to do Coq au Vin or Beef Wellington?

I love a cook that can make the perfect French fry (thin, crispy and dusted with garlic and herbs), and my other half makes a wonderful Chicken Marsala for a man who claims to be an ‘okay cook.’

To me the most important part of the food you make is the love you put into it. How you make something can say as much about you as what you choose to eat. When I make my food with love, even my mistakes are good, according to the critics. (Okay, really my little brother and other half. They can be fairly tough!)

I am very interested in the current trend to get closer to the fundamentals of food, the growing of, making of and learning more about what we eat. I hope that it is not a trend, and is instead a new way of life.

Food should be fulfilling and make you happy. It should bring people together in new and interesting ways. It should calm, soothe, energize and inspire. I hope that this week, you will find a food that does one or all of the above for you.

Even better if you made it yourself!