As You Like It: Bon Appetit!

Steve and I have seen the movie Julie and Julia twice and loved it both time times. We both agree, though, that the best parts are the ones where Meryl Streep portrays Julia Child. Watching Streep’s brilliant recreation of Child, I found myself wishing that I had known her. She had such a love of food and life and must have been a joy to be with. I also think of how wonderful it must have been to find such passion almost by accident. I often wish that I could spend some time looking for new adventures. Funny thing is, while I’ve been idly wishing, my husband has gone ahead and done it.

It began last September when I returned to work. I get home every day after 4 and toss dinner together for the two of us. I’m usually tired, so the meals are not the most creative and they tend to blend together week after week. Lately I consider dinner successful if it’s on the table by 5:30 and there aren’t too many dishes left in the sink. I used to be an adventurous cook but exhaustion has done me in.

One day Steve announced that he wanted to cook one meal a week so that I wouldn’t have to face dinner preparation every day. I was shocked. You see, my husband has never liked to cook. He would always tell me that he had no sense of what to add to a dish to make it taste better, that he had no idea of what went into a successful recipe. He enjoyed cooking Chinese dishes because the ingredients are fairly simple and exact and can be stir-fried quickly. He’s also a typical guy in that he considers the grill his territory. But standing at the kitchen stove, stirring and tasting and tossing in pinches of herbs and spices has never appealed to him.

I chose Friday, my day off. It may be a day off from work but I still spend the entire day running errands and finishing off all the chores that I’ve left hanging during the week. The idea of being able to come home late in the afternoon to a meal and a glass of wine seemed like a little bit of heaven to me.

Of course, my computer savvy husband started his cooking adventure on the internet. He and Lisa have discovered the world of online recipes while I still gravitate toward cookbooks. Old habits die hard. He asked me if I wanted to know what he was making. On impulse I told him I’d rather be surprised. So I sat down that Friday night to a chicken dinner that, to tell you the truth, I couldn’t quite believe. It was absolutely delicious. I pronounced the experiment a success and told Steve that I couldn’t wait until the next week.

When I told our family foodie, Lisa, what her dad was doing, she was amazed.

“Dad’s cooking?” she asked. “Really cooking?”

“Yep,” I answered. “And it’s really good!”

The next week I sat down to a salmon dish topped with such an incredible sauce that I licked the plate clean. And it went on like that week after week. It wasn’t only the meat or the fish that was so good. The side dishes were all incredibly imaginative — salads and rice pilafs, pastas and sautéed vegetables. Friday had always been my favorite day of the week but now it was even better.

When I told my friends what Steve was doing they said, “Sounds good but I’m sure he has you shopping for the meal.”

I told them that once he found his recipes for the week he went off shopping for all his ingredients. In fact, since this has begun I’ve deserted my friends at The Main Course because that’s where Steve now shops. Sorry about that guys!

One weekend Lisa asked if she could bring Matt over for dinner and I told her to ask her father. Steve got this gleam in his eye at the thought of expanding his culinary skills for a new audience, and it was then that I realized that this had grown into much more than just a chore.

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” I asked him. And he agreed that at some point in the process it had changed from hesitant experimenting to real enjoyment. He liked finding new recipes, new ingredients, new foods. And he was becoming increasingly sure of himself and his talents.

When Lisa and Matt came over, they were amazed and I was ecstatic. It was the first time that we had ever had people for dinner when I hadn’t run crazily around all day preparing a meal. When I saw that Steve had made chocolate mousse for dessert I officially passed the cooking baton over to him.

There are times when he comes up with a different salad every week or a new way to make mushrooms and I begin to feel upstaged. But I get over it. I’ve been cooking for over 33 years and I’m tired. Steve’s discovered this new passion, and it’s something that we can all enjoy. I feel like Julia’s husband, Paul, when he would come home every afternoon and call out, “What’s for dinner darling?” knowing that it was always something incredible. And like Paul, all I have to do is drink my wine and kiss the cook.

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Posted by Joan Florek Schottenfeld on Mar 18 2010. Filed under As You Like It, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.