Family Table: Iced Coffee Boba

Shortly before Pesach, I was telling a friend of mine how much I enjoy cooking and baking in advance in my Pesach kitchen, and how it had magically rekindled my enjoyment of cooking. My friend shared a realization of her own: She’d recently had a staff lunch at work, where they played a game of human Guess Who. One of the questions posed about her was “Does this person love to cook?” She’s become known for her love for cooking, but as she stood there awkwardly, midgame, it hit her.

It’s not cooking that she loves. The love she has for cooking is just about feeding her family. She doesn’t actually enjoy cooking for cooking’s sake at all.

This thought accompanied her over the next few days as she pulled and flagged recipe after recipe for the quickest, simplest, one-bowl dishes, which she took further shortcuts on. Yet somehow, she still manages to produce delicious meals and gets requests for her recipes from guests.

While the vast majority of us provide meals for our families on a regular basis, some of us really don’t enjoy being in the kitchen, while others get a thrill out of so many different aspects related to cooking. The satisfaction could be in the efficient output or the creative process of dashing a little of this and that onto a simple protein, or plating and presenting in a pleasing way. For those of us who enjoy it, it doesn’t matter what the impetus is, all roads lead to the kitchen.