So many of us who choose cooking as a profession do so because it is strongly rooted in our personal lives. I’m not talking about those who cook for a paycheck, I’ve met plenty of those, I’m describing those who cook with great heart and soul and form a deep, abiding connection with their dishes. How many of us, this goes beyond international borders, think back to a dish we remember from our childhood and can almost taste it? Perhaps even more than tasting the dish there are memories associated with that dish, memories of people and events that maybe help us recapture, for however brief a time, a bit of the past.
A perfect example is the Christmas cookies my mom makes every year since taking the reins from my grandfather. From the spicy, chewy gingerbread to the classic peanut butter with a Hershey’s Kiss on top they carry so many positive memories for me. When I smell gingerbread baking for the first time, I’m taken back to the house my mom and I lived in with my grandparents. I remember sitting in the faintly lit living room, the only illumination being that coming from the dining room, while my uncle David…as in love with Christmas as I am, slipped Nat King Cole onto the record player. This would be days before the decorating of a Christmas tree or the wrapping of presents.
Another example is the German Potato Salad my grandfather would make, usually with Polish sausage and baked beans. I know it’s not classical German food and my grandfather was not a gourmet, but a good man doing what he could to feed a large family. I remember how I used to look forward to a big plate for dinner because I loved it and because he always made it on Fridays so I knew I had two days of fun coming up. I remember sharing dried pieces of bread with my grandmother from a huge cast iron pan, long before I had ever heard the word croustade. These dishes, however sometimes simple they may be, resonate with we who grow to sacrifice our nights, weekends, holidays and so forth cooking for others. They inspire in us a desire to help others find that connection with a meal that they remember fondly, whether it was at a crowded family table in cozily warm kitchen, or a dish shared by newlyweds on honeymoon in Paris, Rome, Budapest or a thousand other places. 🙂
MI Kitchen 