Though I stand in the kitchen with an apron tied around my waist and a stirring spoon in my hand, and am not a good cook, I become as a misleading raisin cookie, or an eye-catching but flavorless stew.
And though I love the art of food, and understand how to read recipes, and can find all ingredients in the grocery store: and though I have all faith in myself that I could master French cuisine, and am not a good cook, I am nothing.
And though I study countless cookery books, and though I surrender my body to be burnt by frying pans and stoves, and am not a good cook, it is all a waste of time.
A good cook can sauté onions, and julienne carrots; a good cook can blanch tomatoes: a good cook does not have a one track mind, he can multitask;
He is biased not on his own country’s foods, he does not refuse to cook foreign recipes, he is prepared to be creative, enthusiastic to try new dishes;
Believes not solely in his own abilities to follow a recipe, but gives some credit to the skills and temperature of the oven;
Can fry all things, can boil all things, can steam all things, can flambé all things.
A good cook never fails: but when there are black, indigestible mishaps in the kitchen, he never despairs; when the smoke detector screeches in high pitched false alarm, he will merely open a window; when an ingredient for a recipe is missing from the pantry, he will creatively invent an alternative.
A good cook knows his kitchen, and he knows his utensils and their uses.
When I was inexperienced, I forgot to wash my dishes, I only made cookies and cupcakes, I licked the icing beaters: but when I became a good cook, I put away my bad habits and learned how to cook turkey.
And now these three remain, the apron, the spatula, and the cook; but the key to a good meal is the cook.
This piece was written as part of a course that encouraged students to learn from the great writers of the past. We read and imitated pieces by Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Henry IV, Jonathan Swift, Sojourner Truth, Cicero and others, studying their words and writing our own but in their voice and style. This creative piece is written in imitation of the King James version of the Love chapter: 1 Corinthians 13.