Cooking is probably one of my longest-lasting and favourite hobbies. It’s a great mix of different skills and dimensions.

• sensuality: taste, smell and feel are obviously an integral part of the process. Smelling of the spices, taste the preparation at several stages of cooking, poking and prodding the ingredients, try to reach the ideal consistency for cakes or meats.
• meditation: i usually don’t need music or tv to accompany me while i’m cooking. It takes its own amount of concentration, and i feel usually more relaxed after cooking then before.
• physics and chemistry: ever since i read a book about this, i’ve realized that much of what i learned in my materials engineering courses could be applied in the kitchen. Boiling points, molecules binding, polar-apolar, porosity, osmosis, you name it. Professional chefs wield thermometers. It’s a precise art.
• design: for some reason a preparation will taste better if it also looks good. Some ingredients, like a sprig of dill or a cherry tomato are added purely for decoration. I think some restaurants build reputation solely on that aspect of their dishes.
• the social side: it’s a pleasure to serve good food to friends and family. It’s a kind of gift, material love – and usually much appreciated.

I’ve known an alarming amount of guys who announced smugly that they couldn’t cook an egg, or that they burned pasta.
They looked, expectantly, for you to chuckle at this display of virility. Or maybe they expected you to find it cute, and feel like making them Boeuf Bourguignon or carrot cake on the spot.

Well, the effect on me was befuddlement. Not being able to cook an egg is a sign of mental retardation, and certainly not something to brag about. And you better find a willing girlfriend quick, or you’ll have a balanced diet of varied fast foods.

Update : On second thought – i admit: I don”t get football. So i can conceive that there are those that don’t get cooking. Agreed.

Anyway, i’ll go and make a speculoos tiramisu now, for tonight’s meal. Hehe.

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