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Musings of a South African Cook
My best memory of a meal from my childhood has to be sitting at my grandmother’s table, looking out the back door, staring at Table Mountain, while devouring her homemade rusks. Hardly a meal, but a moment. A moment that still sticks in my mind to this day.
There was something about that day that I hold onto; something about the homemade-ness of it all; feeling the warmth of the oven filling her home, my heart opening wider with the rise of the dough, anticipating the love I was soon to receive in my tummy. And boy, was it wonderful. It was simple and it was delicious and it was perfect and my whole little world just made sense. I can’t recall much else that day, but I do recall my joy.
I thought about this day a lot during lockdown – specifically when I started receiving the strangest requests from my followers for banana bread recipes. What was it about banana bread that was sending everyone and their never-baked-a-thing-in-my-life cousin off the handle and into…heaven forbid…the kitchen? The answer: it was familiar. For so many of us, banana bread conjured up feelings of warmth, safety, nostalgia and happiness – all the things we were longing for at the time; and perhaps still are.
With our world in chaos, we seem to be constantly reaching for the things in our pantry that satiate. We’re grabbing for some form of peace, light, giddiness – anything sweet, savoury, canned or just quick to microwave. Anything that’ll ease the strife of our new world and return our original state to ‘happiness’. Some of us are eating way more than we did pre-COVID-19. Some of us are eating way less in the hope that we will shed the kilos before the next Level 1.
I’ve come to learn, there is a vast difference between eating to be happy and eating for happiness. Truthfully, it has nothing to do with binging or dieting or swapping out meat for veggies or, even, adding kale (and more kale!) to every single meal we make.
Happiness with food has less to do with what food we’re eating and more to do with how we’re experiencing the food we’re eating. It’s in how we prepare our meals, plate our meals, where we sit and eat our meals and…how and with whom we choose to experience our meals. That’s happiness.
Take the Spanish for example and their love of Tapas as a bonded eating experience. Every small plate is a sharing, is a celebration, is an inspired moment (psst – All Sorts of Tapas shows you how!). Then, there’s most of Europe that will take siesta from their work desks, for a couple of hours – because taking their lunch is not just a need – it’s a cultural non-negotiable (with a glass of vino no less!). Let’s not forget our neighbours of Morocco who build their happiness on minted moments and choose teamaking as an everyday ceremony of love and honour. Happiness is the experience.
We can be happy when we choose to experience happiness – and the kitchen is a great way to start. Whether it’s whipping up the simplest salad with ingredients freshly picked from your garden or bought at your grocery store, or whether its experimenting with a new recipe for the family or setting your table under the Oak Tree for a change and rounding up the troops for hotdogs and chips – it’s the experience of food that counts.
Creating plates of pleasure and a space in our homes where we can enjoy the flavours of life, and experiment with the alchemy of food, can be a gateway to the right kind of happy through even the hardest of times.
After 5 years in the culinary spotlight, 5 cookbooks and 200 experimental recipes (plus a new respect for banana bread) I still believe no matter the time of year or what we may be going through, we all have the choice to eat for happiness – here’s what I’ve come to know about Happiness:
- You can’t eat to be happy
But you can eat for happiness. These are different pursuits. I, for one, don’t believe in healthy diets, I believe in healthy experiences; food is a celebration, not a punishment.
- Happiness doesn’t need to take hours
Start with the simple things. Like rusks at the back door. Happiness is simplicity. Simple steps, simple ingredients, simple outcomes – and maybe Table Mountain in the distance too.
- Happiness is found in Butter Chicken
Oh yes it is. In my One Dish Wonders, my happiest recipe to cook and enjoy is my ‘Better Butter Chicken’. I love making it, and I love experiencing it as a family meal, a date night meal and even a bestie catch up meal. It’s a One Dish joyride for winter or autumn or a weeknight supper; there are meals with hypnotic aromas that call us together around a table as a family, to experience food the right way – this is one of them.
- There is no substitute for Happiness…
But there is lemon and garlic. You can fix pretty much any lack-luster meal with these two gems. Trust me.
- You can’t overeat Happiness
Happiness is low on calories and high on joy. Portion control is unrequired. When we begin to appreciate that finding Happiness along our food journey lies in the experience of food, we begin to prepare and choose our meals with a new outcome in mind. When we change the experience of cooking and dining, eating becomes joy. We begin to cook up our meals for flavour and fun, not for survival or weight loss or grudge. And when ‘happiness’ starts happening, you can have as much of it as you please.
Eating for happiness is about reimagining our experience of food: from how it’s prepared by the cook (cue Keith Floyd back in the day – our first global chef to cook with wine!) right through to picturing who we’ll be serving our meal to, and who we’ll be sharing our meal with. And where? Imagine where you’ll be serving your delicious meal – picnic blankets, Jacaranda trees or even a few zebras and hippos in the backdrop – all included.
While life is still unnormal, why not reframe our idea of eating as we know it. Let’s plan our tables, our plates and our sharing; let’s insert some simple and experimental mealtimes into our daily menus and discover that the true joy of eating really does in fact start and end with the experience.
In our continued pursuit of satisfaction, my advice is to head to the kitchen for the right reasons and aim for Happiness. And when you do experience it – give it a little stir, season for taste, leave to simmer – and call the others to join you.