Cook Pyramid
( I like MyPyramid, I think my people should have copyrighted this term back in ancient Egypt).
If you look at the picture it's very clear that in order to be healthier you should walk on the rainbow while skipping stairs and at the end you die. In other words, you should eat whatever you are hungry for, an the higher you are on the ladder, the less food you need. But food pyramids are not interesting. Because eating is just a bodily function, and is definitely not as interesting as walking on rainbows.
Cooking , on the other hand is a fascinating topic. And in the next 5 minutes I'm going to tell you all I know about cooking. I compressed my knowledge into a Cook Pyramid. Each level of the pyramid is a level of understanding. The levels are : People, Ingredients, Timing and Construction.
First and foremost, cooking is about people. You cook to make someone's life delicious. You cook because you care. You cook as a way to give your personal attention. You don't cook to prevent starvation. None of your guests or household members is going to die if you don't feed them. So relax. Take a deep breath. Look at them.
Are they good people? Throw bad people out of your house and introduce everybody else to each other. Like in public speaking, you should know your audience, know what are they hungry for. Attention? Conversation? A hug? A kiss? A glass of water?
Are they hungry for food? OK. Let's see what ingredients do we have.
As Jen White writes in her bestselling book "eat drink hunt",food rules are simple:
"eat food, not too much, mostly plants". This translates into cook rules: serve food, not too much, mostly plants. Know your ingredients and remember: good ingredients turn bad much faster then good people, so if you want to cook you should insure a steady stream of good fresh ingredients entering your house, turning into food and disappearing inside a steady stream of good hungry people.
And when managing hunger the timing is crucial. Every cook knows that the most precious ingredient is hunger. Feed people when they are hungry and they will believe you are a good cook. Timing is also crucial for ingredients. Know which plants are in season. Know when to visit your butcher. Know what happens to fillet mignon after 5 minutes of broiling or after 15 minutes of cooling down.
As it was written in Ecclesiastes, there's a time to boil and a time to steam, a time to bake and a time to freeze. A time for borsht and a time for gefilte fish, a time to vodka and a time to do the dishes.Don't let poor timing ruin good ingredients and alienate good people. You are mortal
So watch the clock!
At the very top of the pyramid is the construction aspect of cooking. I won't talk about it too much, because everybody else is talking, writing and making TV shows about it. If you ever played with Lego you know what construction is. It's putting the building blocks together and having some fun. Start with an idea and see what happens. Don't stress out about the color inserts in the box. Your creation won't be perfect but it will be special. If you brought good ingredients to good people and did not mess up the timing, you'll be fine. Now go feed the world!