Art Thou Cooking

What is that one thing which comes to your mind when you hear “Cooking”. For some people cooking is necessity, it’s a process, it’s a skill, science and for those who don’t take pleasure in it, then cooking can be a pain, a bane etc… 

I wasn’t introduced to cooking for a long time. Since I was the youngest in the family there were many others who took care of it. Finally when I did undertake the task of cooking it was necessity first and then inquisitiveness. My necessity was fulfilled by our very Indian “Meri Maggi” and my inquisitiveness started and ended with the brewing cucumber soup. Even though they were pretty simple things to start off with and had turned out quite well, there was something missing in them.

It was only later when I took up cooking on a more serious note and cooked up quite a few things, did I notice this “missing ingredient“ in the dish even though they tasted pretty good.

I will take you through a small story through which I discovered my missing ingredient.

In the beginning of this blog I asked you all a small question, what is cooking? Here is my experience when I asked the same question to the main actors of cooking.

The first set whom I spoke to was a group of representatives from Vegetables (who are one of the main actors in our daily cooking) as to what they feel. A lot of them came across to be depressed; some showed torment and others were neutral. I went about making inquires to their state. Their distress was in the way they were being treated. Not many were in a mood to play 20-questions game but a little newbie there showed some interest and said this:

“When I was in my farm I had so much space, so much air and so many of my friends but since I have come here I am put into those miserable plastic covers and dumped in the refrigerator which is overflowing with so many of my kind. I hardly have space to breathe and more importantly I am stuffed with others who are not my kind and belong to a different species. I don’t like this place”.

Seeing that this little newbie had found some solace in expressing its concern, another of them spoke up. When I saw this new speaker I was amazed at how it carried off itself. There was an air of diva around it and I wondered what the diva is doing in depression chamber. The diva had story to suit its own concern. Here is her account: “I am bored of being chopped the same way all time, irrespective of the fare and the cuisine.

And even when I am being cut there is neither grace nor thought.”

The anger swell up so much in her that the way in which she retorted floored me. “Imagine you go to a parlor and ask your known hairdresser to give you a nice hair cut and they end up chopping it, pulling it according to their whims and fancy. What you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror after this havoc has been done to you is precisely what we feel when we are pulled just because you humans are lazy to draw your knife, cut haphazardly because you are short of time. Do you really care how we look? Imagine what you go through when someone is lazy to give you a clean look and does it sluggishly.” And with that she went away and I could see that she was wiping away her glistening tears.

Now that I had heard two depressing stories, I thought I will inquire with the other groups as to what they had to say when an old meek voice called me back. When I turned around I saw a weak red vegetable which would have looked quite fuller and exquisite in a red suit its youth but now looked dull. Upon asking the cause for its state said

Mrs. Red: “How does it matter”?

I was startled. I said it is of importance to keep up ones health.

Mrs. Red: “But what is the point? At the end of it they are going to poke me and that too in the most unpleasant way.”

Me: Yeah but that’s how they are going to make best of you.

At this remark of mine an angered youth came from behind the group and said.

“Really do you mean what you are saying? You humans do not know the use of utensils and do not understand what goes well with each of us. When we are already squashy and flexible why do you have to use a sharp ended slotted turner which doesn’t suit us? Use it to turn you dosas and not on us.”

This came as a shock to me. Who would use a dosa turner to mix food? I am sure there must be some of our kind who do that. Well I had spent enough time here with this group and there were more to be checked upon.

So I moved on to my next guests, the crockery group. They were a bit more cheerful than the veggies but the appearance of some of them was dreary. Looking at the brighter ones I assumed that they must be new additions to this group but that was not to be the case. I asked the fresh looking ones as to how long they had been in service. I was shocked again with their answer. Most of them were in their service for reasonably long time and yet had managed to retain their shine. To lighten the mood I asked them the secret of their beauty. All I got at first was a big big guffaw. Picking up one of the shiny ones I asked what the matter was.

“Well, there is no secret with us that gives us this shining. It is with you all who use us so seldom that we manage to retain our shine. Yeah that expression on your face is very well correct, we are not special and nor are we made to be special, we are the left out kind.” Though we are the “mixing spoon” we are always replaced by that “dosa turner’ who is presently resting.

You must have heard the story of our “Mrs. Red” in the vegetable section. The cause of her state is this gentleman here who is resting now after a long days work. Don’t get me wrong, as a matter of fact he is the most used in our group, but hardly gets any credit for it. Doesn’t he resemble like a guy on shipping dock who is tired after a long day’s work and without bath for many days. He is ill-treated and he gets to replace any one of us yet doesn’t get a wash.

Now that you are here, look at those tiny little spoons. Do you see anything strange in them?”  I was still gazing at them when the mixing spoon started again. “You see their head, it looks clean shaven and well maintained? Now see their tail, anything strikes you?” A careful observation of that revealed that the spoons looked unintelligent and also their tail looked more worn out than their head. It dint make sense to me and I turn towards my speaker and he says. “Don’t give me that surprised look. You are the culprit for his state. Instead of using one’s head if you use their tail, this is how they will end up in one corner. You stir your coffee, delicious juice with his tail while holding him by his neck what more can you expect out of him.”

I was still digesting things that I had seen and heard when another of them walked up and told me this. “As long as you humans don’t learn to provide us basic facilities like wash, proper store room and task we will ensure to rob your food of its glory.”

This presage was enough to drive me away from there and to realize so many mistakes we all do day in day out. Most of us consider cooking to be a mundane task which we all need to do each day to fill our appetite. This doesn’t come at once, it comes from the pomposity. This pomposity comes from cooking for years together without any one checking upon.

Nature has blessed us with so many vegetables, fruits, and spices and equipped us with a tongue that can relish all this. Engineers and smiths have worked hard to provide us with in-numerous tools for cooking. But what do we do, we end up baking something in a pot with whatever we get and fill our appetite.

Cooking is a great example of a melting pot between art and science. The science process starts when you collect ingredients, identifying which works well, and blends into amazing flavors to come up with your dish. Cooking is also an art. It is symphony of taste, aroma and colors that tickles the senses.

The next time you are in kitchen do make some time to observe what’s around you. When you cook understand what combination and spice is going to give that extra flavor. And when you do this you will realize the missing ingredient called “Art”.

Cooking is a good mix of art and science, which when forgotten can become pain, bane, unexciting etc.

Hope you all add that special ingredient and give your taste buds a well deserving treat.