I Don’t Just Love to Cook (final)

If someone was to ask the question “Why do you cook?” it would probably bring a plethora of diverse answers from many individuals. Some may start of a basic answer of “Because I like/have to eat” while others may do it for the joy of cooking or that it is relaxing. For me, it is more personal. I find that I do love to cook and that it can be relaxing. But moreover, it is truly an exercise in love. I cook because it is an need, an expression, it is a love language. It feeds my soul and nourishes it while physically feeding those I serve it to as well.
Early on as a teenager I began to learn cook somewhat on my own. I was living just south of Downtown Denver with my father who was single at the time; it was just me and him in a little apartment. After school I would go home and try to cook for him so that he would not have to after working all day. My first dish I remember was macaroni and cheese and it took a long time for me to get good at preparing it. I had not taken home economics nor spent a lot of time watching my Mother cook so I learned by trial and error. Mac and cheese seemed a good starting point and I do not know how many times I cooked it but I am sure Dad got tired of it after a while. I remember one time the suggestion of adding hot dogs to the dish and that single event changed how I cooked afterward and forever.
At one point we moved to Golden and I got a job at the age of 14 busing tables and washing dishes. I loved it when the guys would ask for help cleaning, prepping, or just keeping an eye on soups cooking on the stove while they went out for that twice an hour cigarettes. I thought of myself as a cook for those few moments and tried to turn my mac and cheese preparing into equal cooking experience in hopes of moving up to the line. That didn’t happen there, but by the time I was 22 I was managing my second a restaurant in Estes Park. I can say I have done it all in the restaurant business but own one.

My Mom today will tell me all the time that I should right down my recipes for future use, but she also knows that that is something I never do. For me it is more about the experiment, the hands on nature and the mystery of the finished product. I will decide on a meal I want to prepare and start hitting the cookbooks for basic ideas and expected ingredients but after that, all bets are off. The experimentation evolves from past meals, most liked components, and sometimes what the pairing might be. I may start with a question to someone that I am going to cook for such as , what kind of meat is your favorite or what kind of food are you in the mood for. Then, I start to work at the different courses and dishes. I like to look at the baseline elements but change is always in order. If it requires cheese it might not get what is considered the norm in type. If the dish needs pan-frying it may be baked.

The business of cooking is also about the preparation. Not just putting the ingredients together and cooking but what it takes to get to the point of cooking. That can be a lot of fun for me too, under the right circumstances. I really relish the prep cook side to. Having someone watch how I prep and the skills I use when doing it. As long as you stay out of the kitchen we are good. I sent an invisible line and you can cross it at your peril. When I get really going the line chef comes out in me, you can’t move out of the way fast enough and you or I may get hurt. When I cook I take over the kitchen, I tend to use minimal pans and utensils and clean as I go. Rarely is there cleaning to be done after the meal ( though I have been known to wreck a kitchen too) and I like to plate from the kitchen an serve restaurant style right to the table.


In the preparing and serving comes the love part. Not just for me but for whom it was cooked for. It does not matter if it as complicated as a full five course meal, a small holiday basket of baked treats or my signature salsa (still no recipe and different every time which is still signature) alone with tortilla chips I have picked to go perfectly with it is with intent. Recently, I was slighted by a comment about how I plated a dish that I had spent a lot of time preparing. From the decision of what to cook to the preparation, I ended up cooking veal saltimbocca, castellane pasta, and steamed asparagus. I admit that the finished product plated was not the pretty sight. I understand that eating is not just about taste and smell but sight. But in this case I think two out of three is not bad and I look towards the intent when cooking the meal. In the end it is not just that I love to cook, but that I cook for those I love.