We recently read an interview with actor Stanley Tucci that got us thinking. Tucci was talking about the similarities between creative pursuits like acting, directing…and cooking.

“When you’re cooking, you have to have a basic understanding of how to use a knife, what ingredients go together, how to turn the stove on. You need a certain amount of

technique, but you also need imagination. And that’s exactly the same thing for painting, for acting, for directing. You have to have an understanding of the what the rules are and then make everything else up in between.”

We also heard a podcast recently noting that while the popularity of cooking shows on cable TV is at an all-time high, the number of people actually cooking continues to drop. The analogy they made was to sewing; in years past, mothers routinely taught (at least) their daughters to sew. Today it’s a rarely practiced “hobby.”

We think that’s sad. Nowadays, take-out is easy, and, in the post-Covid period, delivery is ubiquitous. To be fair, frozen meals have come a long way from Swanson TV Dinners, but it misses the point that there is more to food than the eating of it. If you think about preparing a meal like you might think about drawing a picture or writing a poem — or (like Tucci) acting a scene with Meryl Streep — you can appreciate the nuance that goes into it. When you’re on the right side of your brain, you can appreciate the smell and texture and color of the food you’re cooking — and appreciate it in a completely different way when you’re serving and eating it.

If you have not already, we hope you’ll take a moment to visit our Recipes page to see what inspiration you might find. Cooking is one of our great pleasures and we hope you’ll join us on the journey.