So let's continue on with a line of thought I started a few posts ago on why I believe simplicity in food is the best way to cook. If you've read me for anytime at all you already know my approach to food directly effects my approach to life and so not only do I believe simplicity in food is better, I believe simplicity in life is just as important for happiness.
In the first post I reproduced the story of a Chinese princess and the best meal she ever had. The story came from the book, "The Tao of Daily Life", by Derek Lin. Mr. Lin believes the princess thought the meal the farmers made her was the best ever because she was extremely hungry. He says, "Her chefs were peerless in skills and talent, buy even they could not give her the one crucial element she needed: hunger". While hunger will often make something taste better than it really is, I think Mr. Lin may have missed something else in the formula, simplicity.
Think a moment about the context she ate the meal in. They were on the run and came to an old farm house where poor peasant farmers lived. All they had to give her was a porridge of rice and some preserved snails; two dishes that may have never caught the princess' attention before because of the perceived lack of luxury. What the princess may have never understood before was that simple foods are often considered lower than luxury foods because they are perceived to lack sophistication, but in my experience, these simple foods can and often do taste just as good as luxury foods when we drop the pretense and enjoy them for what they are. I touched on this in a post I wrote sometime ago and you can read it here. Context is very important when eating. One of the best meals I have ever had was a plate of dried figs, a hunk of cheese and some crusty bread. What made it so good was the context. It was my wife and I setting on picnic bench on a beautiful day over looking the lake. Escoffier once said one can only have a good meal amongst friends. You see, context.
I find myself quite in line with Epicurus in many respects when it comes to leading a happy life. One of his principle doctrines reads, "Natural wealth is both limited and easily obtained, but vanity is insatiable". True wealth, which he calls natural, is found within limits and because of these limits one finds it easily. To put it another way; The happy life is one that is simple, limited, and if one keeps his/her desires simple then happiness is easy to find. I know people who are never happy with what they have. They are constantly going for the wealth, however you may define it, that is insatiable; better, bigger, more, different, other. They are never satisfied with what they have now and because of this they are some of the most unhappy people I know. A happy life comes from simple expectations.
Now, in my food, which I think of as the culinary equivalent of that primary principle of Epicurus, I try to walk the same path. I take what I have or is brought to me and make something of it. As most of you know, we have chosen to limit ourselves to what can be grown or produced in this great state of Michigan and by limiting ourselves to a certain geographical location we also limit ourselves to what is available. I don't spend my days wishing for ingredients I cannot obtain. And in keeping in line with Epicurus I aim for simple flavors, relying entirely on the quality of the ingredients I work with to provide the goodness of a dish.
OK, so how does this work into the story of the Chinese princess and her best meal? Like this: I believe she had the best meal of her life because she was forced, through circumstances, to drop all pretension, all expectations, all air of luxury and eat in a way she had never before and when she returned to her palace and all opulence it embodied she lost the thread of that simplicity she tasted. Even though her chefs were the best in China they could not recreate the food she ate because all simplicity was lost when she left the farmhouse. Simplicity in food is delicate and subtle, and will be shattered and lost even with the slightest of unnecessary additions. When we demand more of the dish than what it is, then that dish will never satiate us. The trick to cooking a truly great dish is found in Epicurus' principle: Keep the dish simple and limited and you will always obtain great flavor; complicate it, demand more and more from it and you will never find satisfaction in it. Remember, the true test of a chef's talent lies in knowing when not to add something.
You see, my food informs my life. I cook simply because I desire to live simply. I have learned the best dishes come when I do not over complicate a dish, and because I have seen how good those dishes taste I have tried to apply the same approach to my life. By not adding to much and demanding more of my life than what is natural I have found I am much happier. In fact, I can say with all honesty that I am at the happiest now than I ever have been.
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