Make it Beautiful

VEW

I love cooking, but my first love is painting. I am a painter and my preferred genre is still life. That pretty much means I get inordinately excited about things like grocery store produce sections and farm stands. I think there is an insane, even existential beauty in simple, natural things. If you really stop and think about it, the lovliness of vegetables and fruits, not to mention the tastes and textures when we actaully put them to use and eat them, it can truly be overwhelming.

Today was the first pick-up at the farm from which I have purchased a share. We were told not to expect much--it's still early in the growing season here and the nights can still drop to fifty degrees or so. I arrived not expecting much and was pleasantly surprised. Three types of lettuce, bok choy, pea shoots, strawberries, chives. I couldn't wait to get it all home and washed, and when I did, I wrapped it up bouquet-like in papertowels and layed it in the fridge. Every time I opened the fridge I smiled.

As I prepared dinner tonight I realized that as much as I love cooking I look forward most to plating things. It can be an artform. I don't always do a good job of this--to be honest, many nights it's all I can do to get a decent meal on the table in the pot it was cooked in. But taking the time to make what you've spent time cooking beautiful is worth the minimal effort. Plating elevates anything and adds to the sensual pleasure that is eating. Early on in my cooking career if nothing else I would grind some cracked pepper, or sprinkle an appropriate dried green herb around the edges of my plain white plates. Tonight I made a great summer appetizer that we learned at Reza's restaurant in Chicago: Pita with feta, radish and parsley. I have a large white circular platter, I arranged the pita quarters fan-like down two of the sides and placed 2 chunks of feta at either end. The center was filled with bright red radishes and bouquets of parsley framed the edges of the plate. I'm sure I'm the only one who gets excited at the sight of such a thing--but it really was pretty, and that makes it more fun to eat.

None of us lives life as slowly as we would like, taking a little extra time to make it beautiful is worth the time and will enliven your table in new and fun ways.