Cooking Is the New Thinking

Published on Friday, April 6, 2007, by Christy Harrison / Edit Post

In recent years it’s become increasingly common for authors to pepper their works of fiction with recipes, and historically many novelists have used elaborate dining scenes to convey their characters’ status, politics, and social mores. But as Adam Gopnik argues in this week’s New Yorker, authors who use food preparation as a “background action”—say, having a character “idly make a bouillabaisse while [he broods] on modern life”—fail to really understand the process of cooking:

[H]ere, I suspect, lies the difficulty with using cooking as the stock for the stream-of-consciousness stew: It is that the act of cooking is an escape from consciousness—the nearest thing that the non-spiritual modern man and woman have to Zen meditation; its effect is to reduce us to a state of absolute awareness, where we are here now of necessity. You can’t cook with the news on and still listen to it, any more than you can write with the news on and still listen to it. You can cook with music, or talk radio, on, and drift in and out. What you can’t do is think and cook, because cooking takes the place of thought. (You can daydream and cook, but you can’t advance a chain of sustained reflections.)

Gopnik makes many other seemingly unrelated, haphazard points in the piece, and like Ed Levine I’m not entirely sure what Gopnik is ultimately trying to say. But the idea of cooking as an escape from consciousness is worth thinking about. It’s true that it’s difficult to come up with any coherent theories about the world while kneading bread or keeping your eye on two pots and a sauté pan—at least it’s hard for me. I find my thoughts descending into a rhythmic, childlike patter (beat the eggs, melt the butter, whisk the batter). Still, I’d never say they weren’t thoughts—but perhaps I’m not enough of a Zen master chef for the process to be completely beyond my conscious mind.

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |9 Comments

COMMENT

  • I just hope I'm not hearing some people telling others where their heads should be when they're cooking. It's too creepy to contemplate. Cook what you like, and think whichever thoughts you want to. Last time I looked, it was still a free country. To each his own.

  • I agree with vickib. It's funny, I always felt the zen of cooking, but never would've been able to spell it out until I read this article. cool.

    As for the food in novels...foodie culture is big these days. Just another hook, like travel to exotic places. guess it doesn't have to be realistic as long as it's well written.

  • Food is an important part of all the best books, from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to A Movable Feast to One Hundred Years of Solitude. It doesn't matter so much that the character cooks as that the author is skillful enough to include what is important to all people everywhere throughout all time, the little things like who we loved and what we ate.

  • Well, I believe there is a Zen saying "When you are cooking eggs, cook eggs!" So they do believe that you should be in the moment when you are trying to do anything; when you want to reflect on things, you go meditate.

  • For me cooking does different things for me at different times. It can be a meditation, a tasty way to waste time, to feed myself, or, and this is my favorite: a creative outlet.

    Wine enhances food, and as a master chef trained in France, I know it makes me a better, bolder cook. What one must always do, is get things set up before you start, and think your dish through. Then, you can go ahead...+READ

    For me cooking does different things for me at different times. It can be a meditation, a tasty way to waste time, to feed myself, or, and this is my favorite: a creative outlet.

    Wine enhances food, and as a master chef trained in France, I know it makes me a better, bolder cook. What one must always do, is get things set up before you start, and think your dish through. Then, you can go ahead and make changes while you cook. Works for me all the time.

    I learn from my mistakes, so I welcome those also.-COLLAPSE

  • I know of at least 5 mystery authors who pepper their tales with recipes, often desserts or church social type offerings. To give them their due, they don't tend to have their characters thinking about much besides cooking during food prep time, mystery solving often comes during serving or eating periods, but even so those recipies are usually not too demanding.

  • Simple literary tricks like cooking, or jogging, or walking a dog all have the same purpose; are all journeys that have a start, a finish and a generally satisfactory ending.

    I can't recall the author I'm thinking of in particular (I became tired of perfect dishes, exquisite taste and cleanly solved mysteries) but the hero usually mastered a new fine dining technique by the end of the novel.

    I...+READ

    Simple literary tricks like cooking, or jogging, or walking a dog all have the same purpose; are all journeys that have a start, a finish and a generally satisfactory ending.

    I can't recall the author I'm thinking of in particular (I became tired of perfect dishes, exquisite taste and cleanly solved mysteries) but the hero usually mastered a new fine dining technique by the end of the novel.

    I think the parallel of "finishing what you start" and foreshadowing of a successful conclusion are too appetizing for many modern authors to pass up. It could also be a cheap way of forging better contact with readers and character when the writer knows the audience is into food, wine, travel.

    I would likely laugh out loud if anyone other than a character closely resembling Martha Stewart could serve a five course haute-cuisine dinner AND solve a mystery in the period of one hundred pages. I would simply be too preoccupied with the outcome of my dishes.

    Likely my novel would start with me attempting to understand why my flour and gluten failed to bind in a desert I had made ten times before. Perhaps there would be one or two readers interested here at Chow.

    Erik-COLLAPSE

  • I'm an artist and a home cook. They are often the same kind of activity for me. I function best when my work area is clean and organized, and I pride myself on being able to make something beautiful out of raw materials. I don't do good work when I'm distracted. Or, when I've had too much wine, or am otherwise fuzzy in the head. When I'm really cooking, the only thing in existence for me is the...+READ

    I'm an artist and a home cook. They are often the same kind of activity for me. I function best when my work area is clean and organized, and I pride myself on being able to make something beautiful out of raw materials. I don't do good work when I'm distracted. Or, when I've had too much wine, or am otherwise fuzzy in the head. When I'm really cooking, the only thing in existence for me is the cooking. Just like painting.-COLLAPSE

  • This is what I love about cooking and chess, total absorption is required. Any small mistake in the moment will effect the final result, there is no erasing of error. As a cook I often perform at my best when swamped with orders, requiring peak performance. Most mistakes happen when the restaurant is slow and everyone is engaged in idle thoughts. Good cooks seem to excel at this reflexive thought...+READ

    This is what I love about cooking and chess, total absorption is required. Any small mistake in the moment will effect the final result, there is no erasing of error. As a cook I often perform at my best when swamped with orders, requiring peak performance. Most mistakes happen when the restaurant is slow and everyone is engaged in idle thoughts. Good cooks seem to excel at this reflexive thought but often lack reflective thinking skills.-COLLAPSE