Anyone can cook ...

Anyone can and should learn to cook

Anyone can cook ... but not everyone should!

This line was most recently quoted from the Pixar film Ratatouille, which of course, combined my love for films and food in a most imaginative and fully appetizing way. I am taking a deviant from the usual food and recipe blogs to just muse on a few things.

After all, I have intended this to be a journey and adventure for myself through the culinary zone, and in the midst of all this cooking and creating, I think it's also good to reflect on what food can mean to us at different times and at different places.

We all eat to live, that's been said many times, and food is essential to all of us. Most of us take food to be a daily routine, be it the bread and egg of Yan Kun during breakfast, to the fine dining gastronomy of Iggy's and the Imperials of this island. Throughout our lives, our palettes have also evolved and matured (well, most of us :) ), and yet, food is as subjective as any art form out there, sometimes even more so.

My interest in food came from a young age from my dad, who loves to cook as well (strange how in my family, how the hubbys are better cooks) and would love to create different dishes on the weekends all by himself. He would chop, prepare, cook and even wash. This I am still in awe after all these years.

It's amazing that after so many years, food can never cease to amaze us, or challenge us in different directions and cuisines etc. Yet, fundamentally, very few of us actually will pick up an apron and go to the kitchen, thinking it is something as alien or as foreign as anything out there. Even I used to be intimidated by it just as much.

Yet, like all art, not everyone of us is born to be creative and talented. Yet food, unlike fine art, is not necessarily in the domain of only the talented, but even the most pedestrian of amateur cooks can cook something simple yet delicious. We tend to overthink at times, be it at work, love, or life. And it is this same mindset that I think that permeates a lot of people who love food but is hesitant to step into a chef's shoes.

So yeah, anyone can cook ... and everyone who loves food should at least attempt to learn to cook I think. Why? Because it will give you an even greater appreciation of the food on your plate the next time you enjoy a dish. And the understanding of how that dish was created from raw ingredients and condiments will only enhance the flavors even more.

This is the Silver Chef ... musing on food.