With so many cuisines, varieties of ingredients and recipes, why are we bored of the food we eat?
I was listening to Dave Chang's podcast, The Dave Chang Show, and he mentions something along the lines of always changing your palate and what foods you're used to if you're someone who claims to have any opinion about food. It sounds like a simple statement and makes sense, but in reality a lot of us just rotate the same foods we're used to. If we don't like olives, we never try a variation of something similar. Instead, everything remotely olive-like gets tossed in the do-not-eat pile. It's a shame that we do that because there is so much to explore when it comes to food. On the flip side though, the access to all these varieties can be overwhelming I'll admit. Especially when you haven't found your niche yet on terms of cooking.
I took a break from creating recipes/content and just learned to enjoy food again. As with a lot of things, it can be difficult to switch off. I had to take a step back and remind myself what it is that I love about food. Is it the flavours or the process? Is it the intricacies of a recipe or what the final product looks like? As with a lot of things, burn out is real. Perhaps not an extreme level, but in a way where food doesn't bring joy. It's 100% the digital environment we're submerged in most of the time, but I'm not here to give anyone a lecture about how bad the internet is etc. I will however say that it's easy to get sucked into the black hole that is TikTok, consuming content every second on that damn app and question your entire career. The need to always be creating something worthwhile in hope that it will reciprocate the love and energy put into it and questioning your own content on whether its good enough.
I go back and forth with the thoughts of "should I just say fuck it and do the food trends and go viral, maybe" or "stay true to yourself and do what YOU like". I guess the answer is obvious, staying true to myself will be much more satisfying and worthwhile. That's where reintroducing yourself to food comes in. Reminding myself that its the three day croissants, growing/looking after a starter and time-consuming sourdough that I love about all things food. The process of taking a few everyday ingredients and creating something amazing. Pickling red onions? top tier. Making jam? next level. Using heavy cream to make butter? oh. my. days. Every few months I have a new simple food that I'm utterly obsessed with and its currently sun-dried tomatoes. Making them yourself rather than buying them is just beyond gratifying. The concentrated tomato flavour, the layered, intense salt, sour and sweet taste makes me yearn for peak summer. I'll be spending December in the 12pm heat, drying out tomatoes and imagining its the Italian countryside.
I stand by the opinion that although some people are talented and others not so much, just as I can't draw to save my life but the next person can create a hyper-realistic pencil drawing of a bear hunting, everybody CAN cook. In the same breath, not every one has to or want to. I love oven-heated meals just as the next person, and classism or snobbery has no place in the real food world. Point is, it comes down to learning how to love ingredients and their place in cooking. The rules only exists as a guide from those who have tried and tested, but ultimately it comes down to getting to know the ingredient and all its possibilities. Food and creativity goes hand in hand, but I draw the line when it comes to Mac and cheese on a burger, lol.
Anyway, explore the possibilities of a single ingredient and every now and again, reintroduce yourself to food.
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