Enthusiasm – Cookbook Essay #3 – by Jesse Wolf Hardin

by Anima on January 15th, 2009

4 Comments

Enthusiasm

by Jesse Wolf Hardin
www.animacenter.org

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
-Harriet Van Horne

“To the rind! If you’re gonna do anything at all, do it to the rind!”
-Taj Majal (in a tee-shirt picturing a watermelon, chewed “clean to the green”)

Enthusiasm an often undervalued element of effective magic, in cooking as in life. It is the enthusiasm of the flames that cook our meals, and the vibrant will that powers the slicing knife and propels the dipping spoon. Without it the finest ingredients in the world would remain separate and inert, the pretty bowls feeling abandoned and lonely, the kitchen all too clean. Without it the disenchanted diner has no positive recourse beyond raw fruits and vegetables, while the more penitent of the lot may opt for the self denial of microwavable dinners and self-flagellation fast-food restaurants.

It is this dearth of enthusiasm, not any shortening of the hours in the day, that accounts for the shift from aesthetics to convenience, from an affair of pleasure to a simple matter of utility. In its absence there can be no such thing as “home cooking,” even if the food be prepared at home, and no benefit to eating beyond the base maintenance of the human machine.

Loba will have none of that nonsense. Dance from stove to sink, and no meal will be without the rhythm of your pulse. Smile, then praise the ingredients so that they will smile too. Sing while you stir the batter, and for days the bread will sing back to you. Laugh into your big ceramic bowl, and your guests may hear the chuckling echoes as you spoon its contents onto their plates. She knows that no matter how unimportant we might think we are, how truly fallible or imperfect, we deserve finer treatment than our sour haste provides. As living, breathing creatures we deserve to dwell in a state of excitement… to be fully enthused, and to reap the benefits of that enthusiasm.

And as she’ll tell you, the food also merits better than that, each product of life deserving our most conscious treatment, ardor and zeal. Each is to be honored by the respectful handling, the fervor and ceremony in its preparation, the royal pairing with other worthy ingredients, the intention and success of the recipe. The cabbage warrants acknowledgment and the doves, affection. The dessert likes its horn blown. For their sake as well as our own, we should remain as enthused in the eating as we were in the cooking. Loba holds the celery out before her for a moment of recognition, even adulation, before placing it in her mouth. She embraces the muffin, tickles underneath the chins of the asparagus, and kisses the apple before she bites.

Surely this is one of the great lessons of the Enchanted Kitchen: if one is to proceed (whether to cook, or to undertake a lesson or any other task), we’d best proceed without pretense or restraint, with the gusto that makes it both pleasurable and worthwhile. With the zest and relish that enlivens our world. With the enthusiasm that makes our disappointments seem negligible, and our triumphs complete.

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Michele

January 15, 2009 at 9:26 am

Ah yes, the celebration of food. It is a crime to call it a convenience (actually the food itself is a crime at so called fast food joints).

Our ancestors reveled in the celebratory process of eating, they honored and they thanked. Most of all they appreciated what they reaped. It meant labor of love in so many ways and again our ancestors even gave lives to feed families during the hunt. Food is sacred, it is the nourishment for our bodies and just as important as the nourishment that we read and fill our souls with. It should be celebrated and it should be whole, just as it was given to us from Gaia.

When you arise in the morning,

give thanks for the morning light,

for your life and strength.

give thanks for your food

and the joy of living.

If you see no reason for giving thanks,

the fault lives in yourself.

– Tecumseh
Emma

January 15, 2009 at 11:52 am

I love it!
lovinglandbase

January 24, 2009 at 4:14 pm

so wonderful- i always dance in the kitchen while i’m cooking!
Juni

August 10, 2009 at 6:06 pm

Blessed Loba – so when is your cookbook coming out for sale? We are all waiting to be enchanted!! In this age of convenience foods and eating disorders, the concept of actually enjoying food and its preparation has been swept under the rug. Your focus on delight and kitchen beauty is truly rare, we all need that magic to nourish our bodies along with our souls. I believe that even the most nutritious fare doesn’t do any good if there’s resistance and lack of joy in the eating of it. Please hurry up and finish this so that we can begin that visceral healing!