IS ME IN THE KITCHEN (Wen 26 Jan)

Is that I can cook. I am not a chef and never trained to be one. I had a dream to be one but I never got a chance to pursue it since my mum said she will cook for me till I get old. I use to look over when she was preparing meals, just to be the first one to taste the beef, (that is once I a million days when we get to have meat in the house. Meat was for special occasion back home).

When I joined my brother Tom to live with him, he made me a cook and not a single day he complained of the food apart of one day I wasn’t myself and I didn’t cook ugali as it should and we all had running belly the whole night.

When I was sent to help in the kitchen when I was living in kampala as a missionary, the man in charge, brother Oratius who was from Haiti asked me, “Young man, can you cook? Have you ever been in the kitchen cooking?” And I was like yaaah I can cook for two, me and my brother. And he gave me a fishy smile and said, “Then multiply whatever you cooked by 100 men in one house.” And that was my beginning of cooking and I ended up baking one for 25 mothers, during Mother’s Day.

I usually say, cooking is an art. Creativity is the other side of me. Not only on my gadgets and canvas I also create food that I cant give recipe but I can cook again and again, some thing, different ways.

It is also weird that I can cook other nationalities food and those from those places they don’t know how to cook. Including some of my friends here in jamaica, they can only boil water or an egg, but they cannot cook rice and peas or even boil a pot of soup.

When I was growing up, cooking was only for women, my grandma, my mum and sisters. It was never heard during those time men in the kitchen. I remember one occasion my brother was left by grandma to attend to the pot that was cooking of our traditional meal, gatheri/isyo and accidentally his girlfriend visited and found him holding the pot to carry to the main house. That was the end of that relationship. I believe that may have been the reason mommy never wanted me to be a chef.

Looking myself in the kitchen, the mixing of seasonings, and making the food look appetizing amazes me. Setting the table and just seeing my family and friends enjoy the meal makes me want to go back again and again to make more meals for them.

This part of me, cooking has saved my vocation. A man of God I cooked for 5 years past met with me in my most time of need and since then he has never left my side. Just because I cooked tilapia fish for him and his friends when they visited Africa. This part of me I love it with my whole self, and it has won me a lot of friends.

Eating is a talent just as cooking. Who don’t love him/her belly. Leave a comment if you don’t like good looking food.