The Kitchen

I have only recently come to understand the kitchen and I certainly still have much to learn. Living remote - with limited access to almost everything including basic fresh produce - I have learnt to really appreciate the fine mix of flavours that can be created in my very own kitchen. I'm beginning to realise the processes of cooking and the value of a truly home-cooked meal. 

One of my earliest cooking memories was the night of the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics. I was 8 years old and I wanted to bake a chocolate cake from a recipe book. It was the most amazing chocolate cake I had ever seen. It had thick chocolate icing and was covered in chocolate freckles. My mother, who is a self-proclaimed kitchen hater, begrudgingly agreed to help me make the cake. 

We did most of it together and, for me, that's what food is about - sharing.

Sharing is the basic element of food. Food is the most common bonding element amongst humans - to survive, we must eat. 

From the first day of school you swap lunches with your friends. Throughout life we spend time in the kitchen together - planning, selecting, chopping, blending, baking, basting, frying, talking. We taste little bits and pieces from the plates of those who we love. We give our neighbours and our friends tasty treats or snippets from the garden. We share our lives over meals. We have food that is linked to our emotions, times of day, seasons of the year, special occasions and everything in between. 

In the end, my mother tried to tip our chocolate cake out of the pan too early. It was way too hot and immediately collapsed into various abstract pieces. I didn't make another cake for 10 years but I am so thankful for the experiences I had in the kitchen as a child and the love of food and creating I now have in my adult life.