Always Be Cooking

Taking the bus over Russian Hill, I did not stop on Hyde Street where I had a (to me) palatial four-room apartment. Instead I kept going down the hill to Polk Street, to the Real Food Company, a modestly-sized grocery. It was fall and piles of pumpkins and squashes graced the shelves at the entrance, plus golden bouquets of fall flowers. There were baskets of fresh bread, trays of fruits and vegetables, small central aisles of cereals and packaged food, a small selection of wines, and, at the back, a meat and fish counter.

I considered myself an aesthetic eater. Though San Francisco was rife with health food stores catering to the many ideas about diet playing out at the time (probably 1997), it had begun to be true that you could buy beautiful organic produce that had come in from farmers in the area. I had learned to cook and eat during long term stays in Europe, and felt that if you ate with beauty and the classical civil values in mind, you would be healthy enough.

The Real Food Company answered all my needs. I fell in love with a loaf of Pugliese, buying it over and over and learning to dip it in olive oil. I discovered pesto and sat many nights in front of a fire in the winter (yes, the apartment had a working fireplace!) eating capellini topped with it. I lamented that I was only cooking for myself, but I had many guests. In an experimental mode, I made appetizers of figs topped with goat cheese and warm walnuts, potatoes Anna, roast chicken with goat cheese slipped under the skin, winter salads of pear and walnuts.

At this time I also bought our first All-Clad pan. Nothing helps cooking like sturdy steel pans with even heat and smooth surfaces. With such pans and a good chef’s knife, you are in business!

Buying organic produce is still perhaps a bit more expensive. But I justified it by saying that I spend less money on doctors! Up until my advanced age, I have rarely even had an internal medicine physician, believing I am better off with tai chi and careful eating.

No matter what your circumstances, it seems to me that you must always be cooking and baking. You must buy the best ingredients you can and avoid processing by third parties. This serves many purposes. It reduces the amount of gratuitous chemistry in what you eat, it awakens your senses and brings you into touch with the real, elemental world. It also subverts the power of corporations to run your life.

It isn’t that hard to do. Find a place where you can buy staple grains, beans, salt, flour and spices to keep on hand. Some cities have stores where you can bring your own containers for bulk items. Go to the farmers’ market near you and buy whatever is in season. Learn to cook beans, squash, beets. Make your own pickles. Set your own bread. 

I have been lucky in learning cooking and baking techniques throughout life. I don’t use recipes much any more, except when baking requires specific proportions. Two recent discoveries have thrilled us. First, Don decided to make his own taco-sized tortillas. He mixes the dough, I roll it out, and he bakes the tortillas on the plancha (an iron griddle topping two gas burners on our stove), and they are delicious and keep well.

And then, because Don thought he could taste the chemistry in store-bought hummus, I learned to make it. I soak overnight and cook chickpeas for at least an hour. Then I pound and mortar them into meal and mix with salt and pepper, minced garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. I don’t even measure, but the result is always delicious. If you have some parsley to put into it, all the better.

I have heard the ABC rule as “always be creating,” but it seems to me the world is full of things we have made. The food made available by our culture is, however, often dangerously full of sugar and additives. Not to mention being wrapped in the ubiquitous plastic which we cannot help but ingest. More recently, companies want to sell you pre-packaged ingredients delivered to your door as ready-to-cook meals! More plastic. More people (or delivery carts) between you and your food.

We should “always be cooking”!  There is no more counter-cultural activity than cooking for yourself and your household. You may claim that you are too busy, but weaving cooking processes into your daily life can be done. Throw a bunch of root vegetables and some onions into a Dutch oven for an hour or so and you have a meal! Cook up a pot of beans  and serve it with salad vegetables and everyone will be happy. Make enough so that you have a similar meal tomorrow.

The Real Food Company did not survive a purchase by a new owner. It closed a couple of years ago, long after I moved on. Seeking out great farmers’ markets and organic foods has become a way of life, however.

The corporate world educates us to be consumers, beginning when we are children. At its most seductive and alluring, it strives to make our pleasures and entertainments into things we can purchase. In a recurring cycle, it insists we earn money so we can buy its wares. To take back our own lives, we can start with our necessity to eat. The real world is waiting beneath the corporate claptrap. Always be cooking!