HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
Reflections on the lessons of the kitchen, inspired by Dōgen Zenji & Ferinand Point
These two books are the testaments of FoodLife & the Spirit of the Kitchen. They have been my constant companions, voices from the past, mentors to my soul and my time at the stove. This on going journal is a meditation on how the act of cooking can change your life.
“See the pot as your own head; see the water as your lifeblood.”
Instructions for the Zen Cook
"It is with my stove that I people my silences.”
Ma Cuisine
The Old Testament According to DOGEN
The New Testament According to POINT
Many, many years ago
Edward Behr, in his eponymous magazine The Art of Eating, wrote about his 10 favorite cookbooks. He suggested that it was an exercise of liberation to brutally edit your collection of cookbooks to the few that held meaning and insight for your pursuits in the kitchen. I followed his advice then and moved many cookbooks off my shelf, reducing the number to 13. In the intervening years I have continued to do so. In the three moves of my domicile I have given away at least 650. Now, only two remain on the shelf - Dogen and Point. Well, this is literal, of course I have a few dozen books that I retain, certainly I will continue to add to my collection, such as Recipes from the World of Tolkien, given to me by my daughter - an act of love and who can deny the Hobbit Diet being the only diet to follow - if one has such a folly? All of my current collection, and for that matter, most cookbooks are about WHAT to cook, not HOW to cook.
An evolving dialogue, charting fathomless waters so others may follow…
September 4, ‘24 As I write, I have imagined how I could make part of my website akin to my journals - not polished, well constructed or a finely edited discourse. Instead, a series of field notes on my discoveries, what is important, and to put into perspective life through the eyes of an old cook. I wish it could just be pen to paper and share my journals. I love the sensual dance of pen and ink. There is great satisfaction in using my hands - it is why I cook and why I make things.
I surrender to the modern world, the digital realm it will be. I will always have notebooks, however.
With the exception of one other book (The I Ching) there are no other books I have spent so much time reading, returning to year after year, decade after decade, being refocused & grounded in my life as a cook. It is my intention to share why this is so. It is not an over-night endeavor. It will be ever evolving, a voyage into waters I have been to before but now will chart.
Why these two? Of all the cookbooks I have or have had, these two speak most directly about the spirit of food, the mindful practice of cooking, the way to approach the stove and table, and of extreme importance, what the activity of cooking means to my quality of life, how I see myself, and how to approach life.
