Why I Cook

Sometimes, I enjoy cooking.

If I am feeling relaxed and unpressured for time, I can peaceably chop, dice, and sauté away in a quest for a scrumptious meal. If I want to make a truly special meal for an occasion, I am happy as I go about the task of creation. Sometimes I enjoy a hunt, a long-term search for the perfect recipe of a particular dish that has captured my interest, like the perfect meatloaf, the perfect cassoulet. I approach these projects as one might approach any other research, only with experiments that can be eaten.

There are plenty of times that I'd rather not cook. I'd much prefer to sit and read, paint, draw, sew, or converse rather than cook… and yet I get hungry. There are many days I'd rather not spend hours cooking, and then after the meal is over, consume yet more time cleaning up the mess. Why do I cook? I cook because I love to eat, and I love to eat well. I've always recognized the simple fact that cooking is work.

Years ago I watched Julia Child being interviewed by Charlie Rose on public television. Charlie Rose asked Julia Child what qualities [in a person] made for a good chef. Julia, in her usual straightforward manner, replied that one had to be hungry a lot. This is what I call joking on the square - funny and true. Later in the same interview Charlie Rose asked Julia Child if she ever ate at McDonalds when she was busy, on the road, and away from her kitchen. Julia Child said she occasionally enjoyed a [Burger King] Whopper, but did not like McDonald's hamburgers at all. She went on to explain that if she did not have a good meal at least once every three days, she became depressed. Oh, I am in complete agreement!

We eat to sustain ourselves, and yet there's a lot a variation in the way people approach their food. Some people approach eating with scant attention, some are obsessively counting calories, and others approach with health, fitness, or longevity in mind. Some people are gluttonous, some seem oblivious, and others are gourmets. As I've analyzed my fascination with food, I've come to a number of conclusions.

First, for me, there is a "quality of life" aspect to eating well. I'd rather enjoy good food than drive a large or expensive automobile. I'd rather have a refrigerator stocked with fresh wholesome foodstuffs than live in an ostentatious house. I do become depressed if three days pass without eating good (healthful and delicious) food. Life feels better when my meals are good.

The aspect of kitchen work that I enjoy most is the creative part - using imagination to conjure a sumptuous meal. I enjoy those occasions when I take stock of the larder and the refrigerator, ponder the problem, and then make something sensually satisfying out of the odd ingredients at hand. But to assume that there is not going to be work involved in the act of creating a meal would certainly be a mistake.

When I've read statistics about how frequently Americans are eating their meals at fast food joints, I've arrived at my own understanding of the equally high rates of American who are clinically obese. Not only are fast food meals typically laden with saturated and hydrogenated fats, they are also not all that sensually satisfying. Perhaps many Americans are not fully sated, not feeling satisfied by their fast food eating experience, and therefore they keep on eating.

A well-prepared flavorful home-cooked dish is satisfying. I find that cooking is element that contributes to my feeling of satiety. Wonderful aromas begin to waft around kitchen as a meal begins: chopping garlic and onions, dropping aromatic vegetables in a pan of sizzling hot Greek olive oil…. The edge of my hunger begins to lift as the meal is being made. Fast food meals, while convenient on the odd occasion, do not satisfy me. They leave me hungry for the flavors of a home cooked meal.

Pamela Lee has crafted many meals from her tiny kitchen in Pullman.

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