Many years ago, when I was food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a colleague asked me a question that nags me to this day. “Why is it,” Betty wanted to know, “that some people can make food that tastes better than mine, even when we’re following the exact same recipe?”
Bee Wilson, the popular British food columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of seven acclaimed books dealing with food history and the psychology of eating, offers clues in her first full-length cookbook: “The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen” (Norton, $40).
“Deliciousness,” she writes, “is a mindset. More than anything, the secret ingredient that makes the difference in the kitchen is enjoyment.”
She devotes more than 400 pages to dismantling the roadblocks that stand in the way of that pleasure — time, money, guilt, fear, anxiety, insecurity and a raft of other emotions — to help us figure out ways of cooking that work for us.
It’s an ongoing process, even for herself. She shares how, in the midst of a painful divorce, making family dinner “often felt like a race against the clock at the wrong time with the wrong ingredients.”
But eventually, her love of cooking returned with the realization that “if I could pay enough attention to the sizzle of garlic in a pan or the squeaky sound of mushrooms frying, I could forget the darker thoughts.”
Wilson came to view cooking “as a series of remedies that made me feel strangely calmer and more equipped to deal with the rest of what life had to throw at me.” The book’s organization echoes this thinking.
Soothing essays revolving around seasoning, cleaning up, diet, tools, solo dining, eating with children, and more are interspersed with clever, practical recipes for when we’re in a hurry (Ten-Minute Cashew-Noodle Salad) or craving some leisurely kitchen therapy (Zucchini and Basil Moussaka with Lemon Bechamel).
Just as helpful is the list of aphorisms at the end. This nugget I’m sure to repeat: “You may believe you can’t cook but if you know how to eat, you are halfway there.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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