What Type of Cook Are You?

With Thanksgiving approaching, it's good to reflect on cooking. Studies show that the person who buys and cooks the food has the biggest influence on family eating habits. These “nutritional gatekeepers” influence more than 70% of the foods we consume (2006 Report in the Journal of the American Diabetic Association). If you are the nutritional gatekeeper in your family, cooking with love means cooking healthy.

Cornell researchers questioned 770 family cooks and identified five different types: “giving” cooks who specialize in comfort food, especially baked goods; “methodical” cooks who rely mostly on recipes; “competitive” cooks who focus less on health than on making an impressive dish; “healthy” cooks who use fresh vegetables and ingredients but don’t focus much on taste; “innovative” cooks who like to experiment with ingredients and cooking methods. It turns out that “innovative” cooks produce the healthiest and tastiest meals overall.

My point in sharing this information is to help you identify your cooking personality so you know where your biases are. Once you’re aware of your cooking type, then you can decide to move toward a healthier, more innovative style of cooking that will benefit those you cook for.

Becoming aware of your cooking type is a step toward mindfulness in cooking. When you’re cooking mindfully, you are aware of the ingredients you are using and their effect on those who eat the food you prepare. You are also aware of the movements of cooking: preparing and mixing the ingredients, selecting the pots or pans, cooking the ingredients to perfect doneness, and arranging the food on dishes or plates. Cooking is an act of creativity and it can both express and enhance our inner life. Healthy cooking not only feeds our bodies, but also feeds our souls.

Cooking With Love

Can cooking be a spiritual experience? A friend in the restaurant business sent me an article from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper titled, “Restaurants Nurture Stomachs and Souls.” The author of the article reviewed several restaurants in the Bay Area that incorporate spirituality into preparing and serving food. One quote really caught my eye:

"With every slice of ‘neatloaf’ [a vegetarian meatloaf] he serves at Ananda Fuara in San Francisco, Viddyut Balmer believes he is bringing love, peace and joy into the world. ‘Our very purpose is to offer joy in a simple way.’ "

The article goes on to describe other restaurants that attempt to feed the body and soul. The common thread running through these restaurants was that those preparing and serving the food understood what they were doing as a spiritual practice. Words like “mindfulness” and “love” were mentioned several times.

Can cooking food be a soul-nourishing experience? My answer is a resounding yes! The key to it being a spiritual experience is how we understand what we are doing. Since I have been the weekday cook in our family for many years, I have much personal experience to share.

For many years I viewed cooking as a necessary evil. I would get home around five and have about 30 minutes to relax (or play with our sons) before I needed to start preparing our evening meal. Because our sons needed to get to their homework immediately after dinner, we tried to eat right at 6:30 p.m. I cooked simple dishes: a main course, a vegetable and a salad. We had 8 basic meals we would rotate over a 2 week cycle with Fridays being “order out” night.

Perhaps because I felt rushed to meet the 6:30 deadline, or because I was tired from work, I found cooking to be drudgery and didn’t enjoy it. Then I happened to read “The Practice of God’s Presence” by Brother Lawrence, a 16th century monk. In his book he described how baking bread with love transforms it into a spiritual experience.

So I tried cooking with love. I thought about those I was cooking for and how much I loved them. This led to putting more effort into cooking. I started adding some variety into our meals (this was welcomed by everyone, including me). I solicited meal ideas from the family. I began to see cooking as an act of love.

I’m not putting myself on a pedestal because I don’t always cook with love. But, when I do, it changes the experience into something deeper and more satisfying.