Brown - No recipe: cooking as spiritual practice

No Recipe is dedicated to

Marj Burgstahler Stone

who called me out of the blue

more than ten years ago saying,

I have your writing studio for you.

Sure enoughand that has made possible

the writing of this book.

Marjs lifeand by extension mine

has been greatly enhanced by the care

and loving attention of her daughters:

Brahna

Nichola

Melanie

Michele

Melissa

Love and Gratitude

Contents

Youre the cook.

When you wash the rice,

wash the rice.

When you cut the carrots,

cut the carrots.

When you stir the soup,

stir the soup.

When you cook, youre not just working on food

youre working on yourself,

youre working on other people.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI ROSHI

Before Words

A Meeting of Hearts

We meet again, here in the sweetness of our hearts,

where I might speak with you as though from inside.

I share with you a lifetime of experiences, teachings,

lessons; struggles, difficulties, joys, hindrances.

Though I have studied and practiced Zen and cooking

for over fifty years, I have no expertise to proclaim

no recipe for you to follow.

Rather, I encourage you to find your own way in the world

of food, cooking, and eating. To find your own way

of being you, your own way of expressing yourself fully.

Perhaps my stories will keep you company along the way. Perhaps not.

Please see for yourself if my words are of interest,

and if you are drawn to reading further.

Youre on your own.

Together with everything.

Reverential Offerings

If there is sincerity in your cooking and associated activities, whatever you do will be an act of nourishing the sacred body.

This is also the way of ease and joy for the great assembly.

ZEN MASTER DGEN

Cooking makes love manifest. We tend a garden, head for the grocery store or the farmers market, receive the largesse of food gifts from family, friends, and neighbors. We set to work or perchance to play.

Whenever food appears, it is the work of many people and the offering of other forms of life, a gift from Beyond, from sun, earth, sky, and water, from mystery. It is onion knowing how to onion, salmon fully infused with salmoning. It is blood, sweat, and tears; thoughts, emotions, and physical actions made visible, tasteable, edible. What we can put in our mouths, chew and swallow, digest, absorb, and eliminate has been sorted out from what we cant. It is offered, served forth. We go on living. Our bodies are nourished, and if we are fortunate, our spirits are lifted.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have devoted myself to cooking, yet there is no restaurant and there are no great recipes from my old-fashioned kitchenwhich lacks oceans of countertops and acres of cabinetswhere I prepare food for myself and my partner, Margot. Occasionally friends appear, and I offer sustenance. We share meals, and when the stars are aligned, conviviality permeates the room like the aroma of fresh-baked breadwhich I sometimes serve. Our bodies are no longer protesting or complaining, magic is in the air, and all is well in the world.

Lifted, light, and buoyant with the sights, smells, and tastes of what is being eaten, the body remembers that it is also spirit. The divide between body and mind is bridgedno, the two are simply no longer recognized or found. They have become indistinguishable from the present, magnificently vibrant and awash with well-being. Whether spoken or not, thank you choruses throughout the room: to Source, to God, to the Divine, to family and friends, to the chefs, the growers, the pickers and shippers, to our ancestors, to the Blessed Ones and to those not so blessed, to all beings giving their lives. We give thanks. We are grateful. We forget ourselves. We forgive ourselves, and others. We praise.

Its in the cooking. Its in the eating, in the air, the ground, the sunlight. You can tune to it. You can bring it forth.

Its your good heart expressing itself, manifesting wherever you look. Loving what is. And using your body, mind, and heart to bring it to the table, ready to eat.

Its been a lifelong journey. I invite you to come along, at your own pace.

Envisioning This Book

Ive spent way too many years aiming to write a book about food and cooking as well as about eating and eating with enjoyment. Though I believed it would be easy and straightforward, that was not the case. Not at all. Knowing that I am a Zen priest, people would exclaim, Oh, youre going to write about being mindful in the kitchen. No, not reallyas practiced, mindfulness in the kitchen may often be a hindrance. That is, in order to be mindful, you slow down enough that you become deliberate and exacting and eliminate any playfulness or spontaneity. No, Im not planning to write that book.

Showing up and being responsive to the circumstances, carefully studying whats what, entering into your bodys experience, following your heart as well as your head, moving into activity. Now were talking my language.

Entering the unknown world of the kitchen may seem overwhelming. Yet we long to manifest our love in ways that nourish others. When we do not examine our assumptions, we think our cooking needs to be beyond compare, or at least beyond criticism. Will I tell you how to surpass others with your cooking so that you gain acclaim? Not likely. Perhaps you will learn to value your honest efforts.

Beyond this usual world of comparison proclaimed by the thinking of the dominant culture is the realm of spirit, and I would suggest, as many others have, that we are here learning how to bring this spiritual world to life in the material realm. Were studying how to share our hearts with others. Sometimes we hit the mark; sometimes we miss. Its a world alive with energy and feelings, with gifts from heaven and resources from the earth. You come into your own, reincarnating into your own life. Rarely do books speak of this: realizing your sacred nature and your capacity for genuine connection.

I want you to trust and develop your own sensibility, your own aesthetic. I want you to find and express your voice in the flavor, color, and texture of the food. Cooking is a lot like life. There is no recipe finally. Tentatively we follow the plans. Then we dream up what to do with ourselves, and the world.

Im interested in encouraging you, empowering you to follow your own instincts, to trust your senses and your innate capacity to find out what you like.

I offer what I have to offer.

Love and Blessings to the Cooks!

At some point in the conversation I told her that the opportunity to study, to have life open up, didnt make an appearance on a rhythmic schedule. Because it doesnt happen with any particular regularity, I told her she had to say yes, not to me, but to those moments. If not, then it wasnt just the opportunity in question that runs the risk of disappearing, but the idea of openness can also shut down.

KERRY NEWBERRY QUOTING ROBERT REYNOLDS IN THE OREGON WINE PRESS

In the course of writing this book I discovered that my friend and mentor Robert Reynolds had passed away and that there were several excellent articles online about him and his life as a chef, one that included the quote headlining this piece. I realized that I had been saying yes all these years and also found myself touched to have known this gracious, warmhearted individual who spent so much of his time with foodgoing to the markets, cooking, teaching, sharing, conversinga man whose last book,