If you think balanced nutrition is important as part of a healthy and happy life, there is no shying away from cooking, the art of transforming raw, natural ingredients into tasty, filling and nourishing meals. Cooking is culture. Cooking is fun. Cooking is meditation. It can be relaxing, a creative channel for one’s expression. If we want to make amazing dinners and lunches, good energy needs to be created, and love. You’ll be eating it and maybe your family or friends with you, so that’s paramount. Switch off the TV and love each onion, carrot, drip of olive oil, grain of whole brown rice. Each spice and herb. Love it for 25-30 minutes with some chillout music and eat it slowly.
I am not joking. My interpretation of life is one where every minute counts and needs to be savoured. It’s a Yoga interpretation of being in the present moment, internal stillness among the chaos of Maya, the world around us. At the end of a working day, you want to reconnect with yourself, re-balance and find inner harmony. There are many types of meditation and cooking meditation is ideal for the busy type.
Are you open minded? Would you like to try something a bit different? Line up 4-5 simple ingredients on the kitchen counter, look at them intensely for 2-3 minutes. Observe the shape, colour, smell them. Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight, close your eyes and feel you breath, gently inhale and exhale through the nose for 5 more minutes. When you are ready, start peeling, chopping, steaming, boiling or gentle frying, in coconut or olive oil, keeping a sense of connection, a heightened awareness. Serve and season to taste, eat slowly and you have already doubled up: 45 minutes, your dinner AND daily meditation are done… Happy evening!
I come from a strong food culture and love eating homemade whole food, thanks to my grandparents and mother. I believe I am very lucky for that, and very grateful. I left this behind a little bit, when I moved to Milan and then London, my priorities shifted. Fortunately, the food education received in childhood and adolescence prevented me to go to the extremes of bad eating.
Cooking can be easy, not Michelin chef like obviously, that’s rather sophisticated, I am talking about preparing something quick, tasty and nourishing most days, or batch cooking 2-3 times a week. A bit of pre-planning to get simple, fresh, whole ingredients. A can do attitude, a good recipe or two for inspiration and a bit of creativity, a pinch of art. Sounds simple yet so many regularly eat pizza and hot dogs, greasy takeaways and additives packed ready meals from a nameless factory.
If you were brought up on low quality, industrial stuff, wholesome food is an acquired taste. If your taste buds and olfactory system are numbed by the strong stimulants of modern living, you need to detox and retrain them, to taste every naked ingredient, every spoonful of life.
It might be you could not spare the time or had different prerogatives in the past. If that has been the case, why not focusing on nutrition for a whole month? It’s not difficult, it’s just matter of shifting your priorities a bit and slightly adjusting your routine. Getting organised and learning a new thing or two.
It’s a skill for life, cooking. As a nutritional therapist, it’s the biggest gift I can give my clients. A balanced diet definitely includes home cooking, it’s really hard for the average human being to eat well without having at least a basic, direct connection with food, and preparing your own meals gives you the knowledge and skills, the passion you need to fully understand what is good, healthy and wholesome. You can even try eating with your hands, like in some parts of the world.
I asked a couple of chef friends why they love cooking and they all mentioned the word creativity. One also said food is compassion. The best gift we can offer ourselves and others is love. And a beautiful meal, served with a smile, is pure, nourishing love.