{"id":1447,"date":"2017-03-03T11:58:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T10:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2017-03-24T10:40:41","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T09:40:41","slug":"art-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/zen\/art-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Art of Meditational Cooking<\/em><\/h1>\n

This is part 3\/6 Art of Cooking\u00a0<\/strong>of my The Art of Meditational Cooking<\/strong>” series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end <\/em>(cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal meditational practice.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Beginnings<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food Family<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  4. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food is Information<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  6. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Rediscovering History<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    The Art of Cooking<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    Suddenly I had to\u00a0realise that I couldn’t simply cook on the fly anymore, but that I needed to plan and prepare my meals in advance. The meals themselves, but also quantities, cooking times, what works with what. And of course, timing becomes an important part of the equation. There\u2019s still room for improvement here, but it taught me to simplify dishes<\/strong>, trying to bring a theme<\/strong> to dinner of 3 or more course meals. For the simple reason of making the cooking process easier later on. As an added plus the menu simply makes more sense for the eyes, the tongue and the mind.<\/p>\n

    \"Art<\/a><\/p>\n

    When it comes to BBQs<\/strong> I guess the biggest one I did was for around 20 people. The amount of planning, preparation, but also stamina and focus which was needed to do this properly was overwhelming. It did turn out well, but I needed a weekend to rest afterwards. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this a lot.<\/p>\n

    The Art of Cooking as a Professional Chef?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    Over the years the passion became strong enough to raise the question about becoming a professional chef<\/strong>. At one point I strongly considered<\/strong> it\u00a0but opted not to in the end. For several reasons, which is probably a novella in itself, I was looking at that time for something stable<\/strong>, safe<\/strong> and secure in my life<\/strong> within a controlled day rhythm. When you\u2019re a chef at least the rhythm is not very standard. For the rest, I learned that being a chef can you provide with plenty of stability, safety and (financial) security. It\u2019s an equally safe bet to work in a kitchen than in an office. Yet that was something I had to learn over the following one and a half decades to come.<\/p>\n

    \"Art<\/a><\/p>\n

    Anyhow, those fears were definitely not based on any facts<\/strong>. It\u2019s one of the rare moments in my life that I took a decision without really checking out the facts. In retrospective, I understand why I took the decision and back then I took the right decision, but maybe for the wrong reasons. Yet, to this day I am still not sure if it really was the right decision.<\/p>\n

    Back then life was a huge mess and a roller coaster and all I wanted<\/strong> was some guidance<\/strong>, safety and stability. Working in an office or in a kitchen wouldn\u2019t have made a difference to that in the long run. Now I\u2019m able to see this, back then I was blind and barely 16 when I had to decide my future.<\/p>\n

    The Art of Cooking: More than fueling my Body<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    Today people assume on a regular basis that I am a chef<\/strong> and the question pops up again: Should I go for it?<\/strong> And again I have many reasons not to do\u00a0it. Those reasons can be easily classified as fear and the only real down to earth reason is that I lack any type of professional experience. That, of course, could be remedied if I truly wanted it.<\/p>\n

    \"Art<\/p>\n

    Yet, there was more holding me back<\/strong> on taking the career path of a professional chef. I know that this wasn’t active knowledge I had in my mind but this gut feeling<\/strong> that cooking was something completely different to me than a “job” or a means to an end. Whenever I was cooking, and this feeling simply grew stronger over time and with experience, it felt more like the act of preparing food was not only feeding my body but also my soul<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Continue with part four of the story here:\u00a0<\/strong>The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Art of Meditational Cooking This is part 3\/6 Art of Cooking\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking” series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end (cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal meditational practice. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Beginnings The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food Family The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking The Art of Continue Reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_3580015876_3580015876":"","facebook_10222714690288203_1473941132908662":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Art of Meditational Cooking - Art of Cooking","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,27,6,5],"tags":[473,40,11,474,10],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cooking","category-lifestyle","category-meditation","category-zen","tag-art","tag-cooking","tag-meditation","tag-the-art-of-meditational-cooking","tag-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IZwn-nl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1456,"url":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/zen\/meditational-roots-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1447,"position":0},"title":"The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots","author":"Stefan","date":"March 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is part 4\/6 Meditational Roots\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking\u00a0series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end (cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal meditational practice. 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