“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates
Fortunately or not, we’ve developed our eating habits during our childhood years. Here in the United States, a country of immigrants from diverse regions of the world, people have varied eating habits. So in every State, one can find restaurants reflecting this great diversity.
For example, we have American, British, Irish, Italian, German, French, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Mediterranean, Korean, Turkish, Jamaican, Brazilian, Peruvian, Cuban, Colombian, Filipino restaurants, and the list goes on.
SIGN ON RESTAURANT DOORS: “SORRY, WE’RE CLOSED.”
Suddenly, the government mandated the closure of our restaurants on account of COVID-19. Over 8 million restaurant workers here became jobless. It’s very bad. I know because in our family alone, three are restaurant workers.
As these restaurants started to open slowly, the threat of the second wave of COVID-19 has become a reality. We don’t know for sure the extent of the damage of this pandemic all over the world, but one thing is sure. This could most likely be the worst in our lifetime.
HOME COOKING IS TRENDING AGAIN
With the closure of restaurants came a noticeable change in our eating habits. More and more people are starting to cook their own food. One can find innumerable photos of foods on Facebook and Instagram. There are available groups in FB where one can join and get recipes for free.
Allow me to share with you a little change in our own household. For over 25 years only my wife Alicia has been cooking. I have tried once but nobody wanted to eat it.
The change on my part happened about 3 years ago. It began with my interest in proper nutrition. When I learned that we can’t be sure if we can get this from most restaurants, we explored available materials on the Web for cooking lessons.
The application of these basic cooking techniques and its constant repetition made me overcome my fear of cooking. In due time, my cooking became as good as Alicia’s. Way before COVID-19 came, Alicia and I have been eating homemade meals.
Our children became our fierce critics. With their growing fondness for my cooking my confidence improved. Afterward, I challenged Alicia for the title of home chef.
Although we’re not professionally trained to prepare food, we started calling ourselves “The Traveling Chefs” because we love to travel and we are the directors in our kitchen, which was the original meaning of the French word “chef de cuisine.”
ANYBODY CAN COOK A GOOD MEAL
Being graduates of Liberal Arts, we have a tremendous edge in learning almost anything. We often hear we’re jacks of all trades and masters of none. There is an element of truth is this cliche.
The ability to learn anything, however, isn’t unique to Liberal Arts graduates alone. Whatever one’s field of study is, as long as he puts enough effort into it, he can excel beyond his wildest dream. Have you heard of the 10,000 hours needed to master anything?
In the kitchen for example, what I’ve found to be most helpful is the ability to be not intimidated. Given the knowledge of proper cooking techniques and the availability of good ingredients, anybody can cook a good meal. The key is the latter.
So, when will you start cooking?
