Velden - Finding yourself in the kitchen : kitchen meditations and inspired recipes from a mindful cook

Praise for Finding Yourself in the Kitchen:

A quietly brilliant ode to the myriad pleasuresboth mundane and sublimeto be discovered in the daily ritual of cooking. Dana Veldens words read like a deliciously warm hug to cooks of all ilks; her charming stories, appealing recipes, meditative reflections, and honest encouragement will lure hesitant newbies to the stove and remind seasoned cooks why they fell in love with the kitchen in the first place.

Erin Scott, author of Yummy Supper

Finding Yourself in the Kitchen is a glorious meditation on the quiet magnificence of the mundane, and how kitchen taskseverything from cooking to cleaning to placing a simple bowl of lemons on your kitchen tablecan root and ground us in a noisy world that is distracting and nebulous. This is an instant classic, and a must-have addition to my kitchen bookshelf where I predict it will remain forever, dog-eared, stained, falling apart, and deeply loved.

Elissa Altman, author of Poor Mans Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking

The way Dana articulates what happens in the kitchen has helped me form my own deep-rooted philosophies about the cooking life. I turn to her when I cannot find the words to express how utterly healing and ultimately metaphorical it is to pick up a knife or stir a pot of soup. I am so grateful that she finally put what I am sure is just a fraction of her rich experience into a collection of chapters for us all to experience.

Sara Kate Gillingham, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and cofounder of TheKitchn.com

Every great cook Ive known has one thing in common: She is a master observer. Finding Yourself in the Kitchen is a beautiful paean to paying attention in the kitchen, which is as essential to good cooking as olive oil and salt. With grace and sensitivity, it will inspire you to find new joy and meaning in cooking by simply being present.

Samin Nosrat, writer and chef

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Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2015 by Dana Velden

Illustrations 2015 by Sara Mulvanny

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Page numbers listed below refer to the print version of this book.

Essays on pages ) and AT Media.

Poem on Text copyright 2002 Naomi Shihab Nye. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Illustrations by Sara Mulvanny

Book design by Carol Angstadt

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

ISBN 9781623364977 hardcover

ISBN 9781623364984 ebook

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This book is dedicated to the readers of my
Weekend Meditation posts on The Kitchn.
Without your cajoling and encouragement, I would
not have had the confidence and courage to create
a book. You believed, and so then I believed,
and thats how this came to be.

CONTENTS

You Reading This, Be Ready

WILLIAM STAFFORD

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

INTRODUCTION

SEVERAL years ago, when I was in my midthirties, my life fell apart and I went to live in a Zen Buddhist monastery deep in the wild mountains of northern California. In the mornings and evenings, I would sit for hours in meditation with my fellow monks and in the afternoons, we would work. I often ended up in the kitchen, which suited me just fine, although sometimes I cleaned the bathhouse or dug ditches or picked flowers for the altars.

Divorce, the death of my father, and a difficult surgery had left me torn apart and shaken. Little by little, by giving myself over to meditation and the monastery work, and especially my time in the kitchen, I began to knit myself together and grow backnot perfect and new, but stronger and somehow more myself.

Zen kitchens are often strict, silent places. Theres a top-down hierarchy, and the request is to just do the task that you are given with no preferences. Of course, I had many, many preferences and opinions. I preferred chopping carrots to washing kale and tearing lettuce, and I especially loved it when it was my turn to make the soup for lunch. But even if I was given the soup, the culture of that kitchen dictated that it wasnt about my ideas of what the soup should be. I couldnt add caraway to the carrot soup, for instance, without consulting the head cook, and usually the head cook would raise her eyebrow slightly and gently say: Please, just follow the recipe. Still, the act of cooking, even if it was simply following the recipe, had enough decision-making activity to feel creative and even a little exciting.

But eventually, I found that while the soup-making task had its (somewhat-limited) creative expression, the chopping and tearing and washing chores were also expressive and there was enjoyment in these simple, repetitive tasks. There was freedom, too, in the realization that always getting what I thought I wanted or what I believed I liked wasnt going to bring me lasting pleasure. So I learned to stop chasing my desires and to settle more deeply into myself and the rhythms of monastic life. Soon I discovered that the greatest joy ultimately came not from getting my preferences met but in responding to whatever request was in front of me. If carrot coins were needed, then I filled the 2-gallon pail next to me with bright orange rounds, each whole carrot different and requiring my attention to produce the -inch size requested by the head cook. Is it time for dishes? Then okay, well do the dishes or sweep the floor or saut the onions in oil until soft.