In Which I Announce a Quest…

I confess I have been feeling somewhat dispirited  in the kitchen lately. On the one hand, I am pleased that I have been trying newer techniques for the first time, but the result of that is a high rate of failure. Of course I know that failing is invaluable in the learning process, but it remains hard not to take repeated defeat personally. 

When I’m not successful in the kitchen, I sometimes wonder whether it is due to a disconnect between me and the food I’m cooking. If there’s anything I’ve learned from obsessively watching all ten seasons of Masterchef Australia, it’s that to cook well, you need to cook from the heart. Authentic, meaningful food, influenced, perhaps, by heritage, family traditions, or childhood food memories.

In thinking about my own food heritage, I suspect it is a typical one for a lot of American kids who grew up in the eighties.  My mom stayed home most of my childhood, and so had time to cook, but she was also herself a child of the fifties, a time when convenience food was a true gift for women. My mom cooked simple, easy to make meals- meat, rice, veg, canned fruit. She spent time in the kitchen cooking for us every night, and used handy packaged and frozen food to make it a bit easier. The meat was chicken or beef in a stew or ground in a casserole. Things from cans and boxes, but all put together from recipes, and always always, white rice. That one staple of our table the only nod towards my father’s Filipino heritage. Maybe not the most inspiring food in the world, but it was tasty. I don’t remember having a hard time eating it back then 🙂

I’ve been thinking a lot about creating my own food identity. I am on a quest to find the food that represents me, and the things I like to eat. I am still curious to find new tastes, but perhaps it’s time to cast a narrower net, and focus in on what I know is delicious.

And so, I hereby proclaim that I will cook only things I know already to be delicious, and I will work on making these things even more so delicious. I bet that in my pursuit of enhanced deliciousness, I will learn a new skill, or try a different culture’s version of a favorite dish. 

In addition, I also proclaim that I will cook the food I remember from my childhood, but with recipes of my own. I’m looking forward to re-creating Hamburger Helper with a side of fruit cocktail (my personal favorite- those cherries!). Or, those crinkle cut frozen carrot coins, tossed with a generous amount of butter- actually, most likely margarine- sprinkled with dried parsley flakes.

Lastly, I proclaim that I will learn to cook a few Filipino foods. I have very fond food memories from the two weeks or so I spent in the Philippines when I was twenty, and of the feasts we had when I visited family in California when I was in middle school. I’ve forever felt a longing to know more about that side of myself, and what better way to learn about Filipino culture than through its food? 

This hereby concludes the Yum Proclamation. It goes into effect immediately, with a deadline of infinite days. One of the many things I appreciate about working in the kitchen is the limitless capacity for personal challenge, learning, and growth. With time and patience, and the resilience to forge beyond failure, comes great culinary reward.