Adrian and I just finished watching an awesome documentary called How to Cook Your Life, which follows Zen Master and chef Edward Espe Brown as he teaches and/or works with others to cook and prepare meals at several zen centers.
Here is a trailer for the movie, to give you some idea:
Espe Brown is a really funny and quirky guy, and all of his moods are represented in the film, as well as how all those different moods and changes affect the kitchen he is working in. As you can see in the trailer, one moment he will be mindfully slicing tomatoes in utmost calmness, and the next moment he'll be stabbing a package of pepperjack cheese which he deems "inpenetrable."
"When you're cooking, you're not just cooking. You're not just working on food. You're also working on yourself, you're working on other people." This quote from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Espe Brown's teacher, really makes sense to me especially in the context of the Peak Condition Project. Like Adrian and I have both written about recently, the way that we treat our food and treat our meals is directly related to how we are treating each other.
The documentary focused on engaging with food. Espe Brown mentions a lot the writings of Master Dogen, who spoke to the necessity of treating food as if it were as precious as your eyesight. To really pay attention to our food, and to recognize the importance of it. You are connecting with the tomato just as much as the tomato is connecting with you, and somehow you and the tomato mesh into just experiencing. A baker in the film said, "I'm trying to stay with the dough, pay attention to what the dough is telling me...and every dough responds differently." Later he said, "People ask 'How are you doing?' And I say, 'I'm baking'."
Highly recommended!
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1 comment:
that looks awesome! Thanks for posting it.
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