Do You Really Need All That Shit?

It’s a fair question, one that I ask myself often. The question pops up particularly often during those “purge” periods, when I take stock of my kitchen and get rid of the stuff I am not using regularly. Needless to say, this current COVID-19 period is a purge period on steroids, an ongoing existential questioning of what is really necessary in one’s life.

So the short answer to this question is “no.” I don’t need all that shit. I count 14 pots on my wall rack. There are bigger things like a stockpot and pressure cooker and pasta double set just below this picture. as well as a double boiler that sits permanently on the gas range. So, of this inventory, half I use daily, another 1/3 I use about 4 or 5 times a week, leaving 2 or 3 I rarely use.So If you want a large griddle, an extra oversized skillet, yeah even my wok, come on and get it. I do have to check with my kids to see if they might need something, although they probably suffer enough from my periods of deacquisition.

The deeper question, obviously, centers around this notion of “need,” a word I find myself more and more gravitating to these days. What if I set up my dream of a food truck tomorrow, where inventory would be severely limited, owing to space restrictions. What do I really need to take on-board? What if I downsized even further? What would my needs be then? Do we need beautiful plating? What about spices such as saffron, which one of my guests this week politely declined when I recommended adding it to a rice dish. I don’t have answers here, only questions. Sometimes, it' seems as if less truly is more. Sometimes it seems that variety is indeed the spice of life.