This time of year is all about love. It’s about the love that we feel for one another. It’s also about the love that we feel for food and cooking.
The past few years I’ve been teaching a cooking class at the local community college. Because the class focuses on the techniques involved in cooking, it can be pretty daunting. I do my best to make the class fun, and try to help it as a community of food lovers.
Cooking is a very hands-on activity, and since the class doesn’t focus on the actual food (its all about technique) then you’re always learning something new. But that’s not a bad thing. I love cooking because I love learning new things. And I am a very hands-on person with a strong eye for technique, so when I teach the classes, I get to see a lot of my students’ work up close.
A lot of the classes are dedicated to specific dishes, like the one about spaghetti with meatballs or the one about pizza with meatballs, and they go through a few steps that the class students have to follow. The class is designed as a collaboration between students and the instructor, and as such is a lot of fun.
The first step in the class is to take a piece of pasta dough and roll it out onto the board (or, I suppose, spaghetti noodle). Next, the instructor tells students, “Put your hands on the board to form a doughnut.” The instructor then takes a fork and stabs the doughnut. Since we’re a class of two, I assume the instructor is doing this because he doesn’t want to kill the doughnut.
This is a good reminder that cooking is a collaborative effort, and the instructor is using the doughnut to communicate information about cooking. The instructor is also using the fork to stab the doughnut, but it looks like the instructor is also using the knife in the process. The knife cuts the dough, so the instructor is stabbing the dough to make the doughnut smaller. This is a good example of how the instructor is using words to communicate information.
By using a conversation, the instructor is not just offering a lesson. The instructor is also using the doughnut to communicate that he’s interested in the doughnut, and is using the fork to stab it to say that he wants to taste it. This is another good example of how the instructor is using the words to communicate information.
Like most of the other instructors, we’ve all been taught to use words to communicate information through conversation. The same thing happens when we cook for love. By using words, the instructor is not just offering a lesson. The instructor is also using the doughnut to communicate that hes interested in the doughnut, and is using the fork to stab it to say that he wants to taste it. This is another good example of how the instructor is using the words to communicate information.
In my own cooking lessons, I have instructed students to use the word “please” to communicate that they are excited about an ingredient. I’ve also been instructed to use the term “wow” to convey the message that I am excited about the idea, and “I love this” to convey the message that I want to experience the food. The difference with cooking for love is that it is much more open to interpretation.
I think that being able to cook for love is one of the most powerful gifts you can give someone. When someone loves someone else, they will absolutely be in your kitchen for hours, and that is an experience they will never forget.