Cookery As Passion

By Maryanna Gabriel

When I dine, a cook seems to me a divine being
who, from deep within his kitchen, rules the human race.
Those below consider him a minister of heaven,
because his kitchen is a church in which the ovens are his alter.
Marc- Antoine Desaugiers (1772-1827) Gastronomic poet


In the completing of the new edition of Memento, my cookbook, dealing with the printer has taken almost two months. Patience is the hallmark of this work and I am taxed. I have recently heard a radio show about studies indicating that food prepared in anger had negative physiological affect and food prepared with caring had positive affect. It makes perfect sense. In my own travels in life I have understood that plain food served with a sense of fun and joy is easily ingested. I have certainly literally thrown away food prepared with resentment. Intuitively we sense these things. I am often asked when I entertain, do I always eat this way? Somehow it seems important to conjure  food with love for it is how I nurture myself and how I nurture others. Cookery as a passion seems logical. It eases me to be reading now about French cookery. "The Year I Lived In Provence" by Peter Mayle teems with observations of a region, possibly a nation, where this holds true and where kindred spirits may be found. A wonderful meal can be transcendent relegating all of the pettiness that life sometimes offers as minor in the greater scheme.