Perspective by Chris Hall

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Creativity in the Kitchen – Not A couple of my friends could be classified as gourmet chefs.  Many of them are excellent cooks and routinely whip up fabulous tasting meals for crowds of people.  No matter how ill or tired my mother is, she almost never relinquishes her kitchen.  My sister’s household is centred around the kitchen and even though her children are grown, there is still always a crowd for Sunday dinner (and most week nights too). I admire people who love to cook. You’d think that surrounded by all this kitchen talent and creativity, some of it would have rubbed off on me and that I would appreciate at least some of the joys of cooking by now.  But sadly, I have yet to find satisfaction in the culinary arts.  I don’t mind eating the food. I just can’t stir up much enthusiasm for actually preparing it or cleaning up after it. These days, as I prioritize tasks that I will and won’t expend energy on, cooking and kitchen work rank right up there with cleaning toilets for me. A friend once gave me a fridge magnet that said, “I was born to have a maid, not be one.”  That is so me! How time efficient is it for anyone to put all that effort into chopping, cutting, dicing, broiling, searing and steaming, only to watch everyone gobble it all up in ten minutes? And ultimately it all ends up in the same place. Ugh.  I guess I don’t have a good attitude.  I’m just not getting the “joy” part. You’d think that with all this talk of not liking to cook I’d at least be able to say that weight is never a problem. I wish.  Since I cannot avoid cooking altogether, I have developed kind of a lazy chef approach to meals. This involves me going to a local freezer store, stocking up on one-dish meals and then popping these convenient packages into the oven about an hour before we eat. Open a bag of prepared salad and tada! A hot tasty meal that covers all the food groups magically appears on the table. Unfortunately the people who prepare these meals love to cook and know about people like me.  They know that the greater the calorie count, the better the volume of sales to overweight lazy chefs who by now are addicted to prepared meals. Fortunately we do not have to forgo home cooking altogether in this house.  I can still rustle up a satisfactory from-scratch-meal if the bribe is good enough and my husband is beginning to come into his own in the kitchen. Turns out, he likes it and he’s a better cook than I am anyway. He cooks more creatively and imaginatively than I ever did. Not only that, but he works fast and cleans up after himself.  I think I’ll be encouraging this form of creativity as he moves into retirement. Maybe I’ll get that personal chef I’ve always dreamed of after all and without having to win the lottery.