Cooking Class=Life Lesson

We went to a cooking demonstration at the Cordon Bleu the other night. The Cordon Bleu, in case you are not an avid and borderline fanatical fan of Julia Child's, is where the grand dame of the kitchen learned to cook. It is also quite the famed institution, so being within the doors was exciting in and of itself.

I felt like a better cook simply by being in the proximity of the kitchens were professional chefs have been trained. Kind of like how I feel smarter whenever I walk around Harvard Square. Well, smarter and curious as to how many different facial piercings a single person can have.

So the class was called "Chef's Secrets." The biggest "secret" this budding chef learned was how long one should actually allow food to cook. This fact admittedly sounds sort of ridiculous, but it was a little surprising to me. At least, I have spent many a Sunday morning (and a Sunday afternoon and evening for that matter) watching Rachel Ray, or Giada (and her cleavage) whip something up on the food network in approximately five minutes. I realize the food network has a lot of chef personalities to fit into its daily schedule, but somewhow the message I absorbed was that if I could not create a gourmet meal in under an hour I was somehow a failure.

Well, now I can toss that idea out the window, tout suite.

Because this chef really illustrated the benefits of taking significantly more time to cook a meal. Like hours.

For example, he told us that when cooking potatoes it is important to cook them in hot salted water (with the skin on, by the way, to preserve the flavor and not allow the potatoes to absorb a bunch of water and wind up tasting like a sponge instead of a potato), but that you should never boil the water. What? Don't boil potatoes? My Irish roots had me feeling extremely conflicted upon hearing this information.

We also learned that meat (any meat) can be seared at a high heat to give it an attractive color, but that the meat should actually be cooked through at a low heat for a very long time. I think the entire bacteria-phobic United States is concerned upon reading that snippet of cooking counsel.

Anyway, the demonstration was great, not only because it had me thinking more about food and cooking (two things to which I happen to really enjoy devoting a lot of my brain power), but because it started me thinking on life in general. I am always in a rush to do something.

I suppose being a Type A American makes that information perfectly obvious. But the thing is that I am not sure why I am rushing all the time. Like what am I rushing to do? And if I am rushing through the steps that comprise my life, am I missing actually living my life?

Whew...went from potatoes to deep philosophy in a matter of seconds there. Told you I rush around.

My point is that the cooking class inspired me regarding not just my approach to cooking, but also with regards to how I might approach life in general. There is no reason why I cannot slow down, take more time to do things, everything maybe, and just relax a little. Being in France is a perfect excuse to try to do just that.

Although being anywhere is really a perfect excuse to do just that. Why rush? I mean not only will you feel calmer and less harried if you slow down, but you will also eat better potatoes.

So that is my new goal: to slow down. Who's with me?