emerging chef

In November Isaac and I began an intensive adventure to teach him how to cook. That first month he mastered pies; in December it was candies, and last month we planned out a specialty to work on during each month of 2010. It has been great fun and great eating (that must be how I found those lost pounds). He is tackling it from a physics perspective, wanting to know how different ingredients react and how they affect the results, asking questions like, “If I cook it longer at a lower temperature, what will that do?” I am very impressed, and he is very excited, exclaiming after that first pie success, “Now I am a chef! … Well, an EMERGING chef!”

January is bread month. He has already made biscuits, French bread, and bread sticks. I think he has found his passion, dough! His other creations have thrilled him, but not like the feel of dough in his hands as it yields under the gentle, rhythmic pressure of the kneading process. It was hard for him to part with it long enough for it to raise properly before he formed it into the final product. But oh, the ecstasy as the aroma filled the house while the oven did its part, and then, eating the final product, warm and nourishing; it was “heaven in his mouth.” He nodded in satisfaction and exclaimed, “I think I want to be a baker!”