🧑‍🍳 TREE 297: Celebrate!

One.

Katerina Pavlakis, The Intuitive Cook

Celebrating with a feast is one of those uniquely human activities that runs though our history as a species. Feasts are meant to be lively and convivial. As Nigel Slater puts it: ‘Feasting is about how you eat as much as it is about what is on your plate... [it] is about unbridled generosity and a sense of spirit’ (A Cook’s Book, 2021).

Indeed, cooking is meant to be sociable! Don’t lock yourself away alone in the kitchen. Put on some music, light a candle and involve others. Enlist the help of family and guests. Peeling, chopping, clearing up as you go, setting the table, mixing the salad dressing – there are all kinds of jobs to be shared out to people of all ages to lighten the load.

At the very least, demand company. Even if not helping as such, kitchen companions can chat to you, pour you a glass of something, share in the tasting and sniffing and generally make the occasion feel as jolly as it’s meant to be. You may be surprised at how different cooking feels when in good company!

Keep everyone involved in the cooking process too. Chat about recipes and ingredients, let people sniff and taste as you go, and everyone will feel as excited about the cooking as the cook.

Yes, it may get a bit messy but it will be so much more fun along the way. Try it at least once – and why not this Christmas?

Two.

Collage by Phoebe Weston. Enjoy more of Phoebe’s work here.

Three.

Katerina is taking us around the world musically this week. Second stop: Brasil.

If you feel like you could use a little guidance with this whole intuitive cooking thing, Katerina is doing Zoom workshops on Friday and Saturday this week. There’s a discount if you book by Wednesday. (I’m not getting paid to tell you this. I’m telling you because I believe in what Katerina is doing and I’ve been on one of her workshops.)

Cook joyfully
Jeff