............FOOD............

Food

I was as a child in the kitchen early on. With a grandmother coming from a butchery background and my mom putting me to good use behind the sink and stove without fearing sharp knives or other accidents I was self-reliant to prepare meals a bit earlier than my peers.

This art form, being a very forgiving one, came natural to me and in my teens, I already had elaborate parties where I got a reputation for my buffets and multiday parties where fondue cookers didn’t come to rest for days burning holes into oak tables much to the demise of my parents.

When I emigrated at the age of 27 these social events continued for a couple more years once or twice a month and by then it had transformed into elaborate multi course dinners (a dozen or more courses) for 10-20 seated guests with mutual success (unknowingly a food critic was once seated along friends and called the next day stating it was the best meal he ever had).

With my spouse of my first marriage working in the catering business in the Hollywood film industry I found myself to assist her and soon after had my own catering business for a good 10 years preparing special meals for the rich and famous. I prepared diets for models and elaborate dinner parties for stars in the film business.

Nourishing people and uniting them around a table was intensely gratifying. I waited for this moment in the kitchen to overhear after a few courses conversations to die down until nothing but the noise of cutlery against dinner plates was to be noticed.

A moment of absolute satisfaction for a chef when a restlessness has settled within his guests, them focusing solely on what’s before them on a plate and what warms within their stomachs.

This makes a chef in the kitchen smile and know his goal is reached of creating a sort of Zen and a quiet space within the guests and among the whole group.

It is close to: “most of people’s problems stem about their inability to sit quietly for an hour in a room by themselves.”

It’s this peaceful mingling among the same species with a mutual feeling of satisfaction and a peacefulness that unites, ideally in a imprinting moment, through a shared special experience, that a chef strives for, to share love through art.

This in a time where we rush through life with little patience for slowing down to such moments, and little room for self-reflection and a quiet moment enjoyed. Free of judgment and worries and full of trust to the joy of the experienced and the hope (a healthy prosperous seed) towards the future.

Food is one of the ways to bring us into the present time and accept the beauty of being spiritual beings having a human experience rather than the misbelief of being human beings thriving for a spiritual experience.