Drugs & Cooking: Symbiotic Curves?

It’s a funny thing. When you commit to writing for an extended period of time on cooking (or perhaps on innumerable other subjects for that matter), at a certain point, you start to wear thin the shiny veneer of what you are engaged in and begin to dig deeper into things. I think I’ve hit that point recently.

To put it a bit reductively: I’m more interested today in talking about getting sauced than sauces.

One of the things on my mind is this constellation of attributes in our soul food kitchen — and many other kitchens by the way: a profound aesthetic (how dishes taste of course, but how they look, how they smell, how they feel), a certain level of obsessiveness with execution (goes with the aesthetic sensibilities) intense drive (we wouldn’t be in this business if we weren’t trying to prove a coterie of things at least to ourselves, a push me-pull me attraction-repulsion with regards to stress a la minute, the adrenaline rush of creativity that goes with that stress, the emotional connectivity to times past, meals past, history past, and,, of course, the ongoing ingestion of drugs of choice (coffee, tobacco, grass, alcohol, etc.). to keep all the above in constant motion.

I am certain there are healthcare professionals who can thoroughly unpack this constellation of attributes in the kitchen. I’m not in the business of psychoanalysis, and, even if I were, I wouldn’t attempt it in these space. But let’s be frank: Some of this shit is real obvious. You wake up in the morning and it’s all go-go-go, even in a slow-food cook environment such as ours. And one of the absolute keys at least for me in this go-go environment is keeping one’s cool. Having one’s resting pulse be so low that every action of yours in the kitchen seems to unfold in exquisite slow motion. Because thinking ahead, planning ahead, seeing the day’s cooking unfold in minute sequence, overseeing the layout of mise-en-place hours beforehand: that’s the mindset at least I’m looking for. So my go-to poison on a day-to-day basis: Campari and soda.

I go through a bottle of the stuff a day.

That’s a lot of alcohol to consumer, on a daily basis. No rationale here. No apologia. I stay focused and calm. That’s all. Do I have AA in my future? Most likely. But it works for me. And, by the way, that’s my business. Not yours.