At the start of the pandemic, I went from a few meals a week to multiple meals a day, and I quickly realized I needed to learn how to keep the spark going. Not only did the chef and I communicate in the usual way, like couples walking into a shared apartment, but we were to find joy in being together. Cooking is like any relationship. If he is not paid attention to and the effort is not exchanged, he wilts, freezes and becomes resentful.
The first few days I didn't go to restaurants I spent thinking about my restaurant idea. I began incorporating into my routine the little things I once thought of as restaurant fare: good buttered bread, flaky sea salt, cloth napkins and candles, a delightful new wine, even a salad with a nice sprig of fennel. Cooking routine.. I learned that not every meal is an appointment. Some dinners are just dinner. But even an ordinary dinner deserves romance.
Brie Audrey Graham's first cookbook , Table for Two. Recipes for the Ones You Love'' grew out of similar momentum created during the pandemic. In the preface, Graham wrote, "I do not believe that romance should be limited to romantic love." "I think it's something we can always do, not just for a girlfriend/husband/partner." It's romantic to cook for someone else, but it's also romantic to cook just for yourself.
I first discovered Graham's work through Instagram, where I met a lot of people who were cooking at home just the way I wanted it; She found a kinship in Graham's small efforts to create dishes like strawberries with whipped cream and salted almond fudge.
Table for Two is thoughtful and intimate, full of thoughts and little stories a friend might tell you over a boozy meal after Graham chops off the finger of a man she was having an affair with at dinner to get it out. Lunch In an article the same day, Graham wrote about a dinner in early 2020 where she set a table for herself and her friend Jo with folded napkins, roses in vases on one side, and candles. For him, this action not only ended the day of Zoom calls, but also created a sense of purpose, even if the meal was "just cereal on toast or a plate of rigatoni that took five minutes to make." "
Of course, "Table for Two" offers some delicacies; There are crab cakes, spinach au gratin, steak au poivre and crepe suzettes to celebrate the happy news, but I think what really sets them apart is their simplicity, the most everyday dishes, the first in the book as easy to surprise as in the section. They include artichoke fettuccine, preserved black pepper, honey chorizo, pea toast, one skillet chicken, zucchini piccata, and a safe four-ingredient summer cake. Nothing fancy or complicated, just simple ingredients made with care and attention. Pay attention in graham brown butter and scrambled eggs, the extra effort of frying butter and crunchy sage turns ordinary one-pan eggs into something special and thought-provoking.
For Graham, it's a goal. "A struggle to enjoy everything you eat and everyone you love," she wrote. A line from Christopher Citroe's poem comes to mind: I love you. I want us both to eat well. In A Table for Two, Graham reminds us how much love goes into the daily cooking process; It is up to us to generate love.
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