LIFE LESSONS FROM COOKING
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of people in ways unimaginable. But they say, the most adverse situations create opportunities for new thinking. And new points of view and thinking is generally a good thing. One good thing that happened to me, thanks to the pandemic, is my discovery of the joy of cooking!
I used to pursue my Masters in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong and was staying in the campus dormitory when the news of the human-to-human transmission of the virus broke out in mid-January 2020. I regularly used to step out for my meals but was wary of it ever since I heard the news. Further, over the next 4–6 weeks the stress on the supply chains was so immense that there was shortage of food supplies and that meant that eating out was no longer a sustainable option. That is when I decided to don the chef’s hat! Having observed my mother over the years in the kitchen while she used to cook, I was fairly confident that by emulating her style and following her recipes I can feed myself quality meals.
That habit now, after 2 years, turned into a passionate routine. Home cooking has become the new normal for me. Not only do I get to eat satisfying meals with the joy of preparing them myself, I also have learnt a few lessons that apply to other areas of my life.
My regular rendezvous with my kitchen -
Focus and order — Cooking requires a tremendous amount of focus. And order. Focusing on one step at a time creates a kind of order in the process where I do not and cannot think about anything else. That not only helps in creating an excellent dish but also relaxes my brain at the end of a stressful workday. I try to create a similar experience at work. There are multiple projects that I am part and sometimes it is hard to focus and deliver the required output. I focus on one thing at a time for a good chunk of time — an hour at a minimum, but often longer. It has the same effect of pushing non-essential things to the back burner and allowing me to get more accomplished. It is a much more relaxing way to work.
Failure is an option — Although I have not had many failures in cooking (not tooting my own horn!), even the handful misfires did disappoint me. The first time I very enthusiastically prepared rasam, a South-Indian dish; a sorbet, if you will, I botched up the dish by leaving out one of the most critical ingredients. Salt. I added the ingredient after the dish was done and although it was edible. But it was not an enjoyable experience. I cooked the same dish in the subsequent week. This time I undercooked it. Again, edible but not enjoyable. But the third time I cooked it, I hit the ball out of the park! The experience made me realize that failure is an option and probably important. But what is more important is what has one learnt and how does one intend to do things differently in a similar situation.
Creating something, just for myself — Many of us work in environments where we feel like we don’t “make” anything. Our mundane professional or personal work sometimes doesn’t feel very creative. I am not saying that cooking is super creative either but if one focuses enough on the creative aspects of it, it feels like a much bigger accomplishment. That happens when one I not cooking for others, but for oneself. I cook because I thoroughly relish each and every moment of the process. And part of the enjoyment comes from just the sheer creating something almost from nothing. The part of me which feels the void of not “making” anything slowly started to satiate its thirst, thanks to the new-found perspective from cooking!
Building and strengthening intuitions — I almost always follow a recipe while cooking and especially when I am cooking something for the first time. Some things require extreme precision and as someone who loves a perfect dish, I try not to go astray from the way things are supposed to be done. However, a lot of recipes can still be done with slight modifications (purely based on an intuition) and I like exploring the flexibility. Rather cooking has started to make me bend my ways. While the broad structure is intact, I play around with a few things, just to see where I land up, and surprisingly most of the times the dishes do come out well! One starts to build and strengthen intuitions this way.
Don’t be afraid to try something hard — Just this afternoon, I tried out Colocasia Stew, an extremely complex dish which requires over 1 hour of cooking time and originates from my home state of Andhra Pradesh, a South Indian state. It was my first time, and it surprisingly came out very well! Complex things do not always work (first time or ever!), but I always look for new dishes to make. Trying something new and hard is fun. It makes the process a lot more interesting. It tests your focus and patience. You realize you are willing to take risks. The rewards of doing something really hard are usually so much greater than something simple.
