My love affair started I believe in my mid twenties. It started off innocent but has grown into a mad wonderful relationship.
During my marriage to my wasband I was berated about everything. He once told me that I was a lousy cook, horrible housekeeper and terrible in bed. My self-esteem was in the toilet. I was never good enough for him.
After my failed marriage and many failed relationships I decided I needed to get my life back. I started seeing a therapist. And during this time I came to a realization. I love food. Not just food but cooking it. This is when my love affair with food started.
As my self-esteem and confidence started to come back I started to try new things. And food was on the top of the list. French, Chinese, Italian, Mexican…the list goes on and on I loved them all. I wanted to try them all. And I was doing a pretty good job of doing just that. I loved everything about food. The flavors, varieties, and presentation…I fell for it all. But as time went on I realized that I could do this too. I could make these dishes. So I purchased a cookbook (another love affair of mine) and I decided to experiment. After several months I learned that I was pretty good at this cooking thing. Others in my life also said I was a very good cook. This helped my self-esteem immensely. I cooked more and more for family and friends.
Now I am not saying I have not had a few setbacks. Trying to impress a man I was dating I made a gourmet meal. I spent 3 hours in the kitchen slicing, dicing, sautéing and so on. I was so proud of the meal I crated. We sat down for dinner and he proceeded to scrape everything off the chicken I prepared and refused to eat any other dish I prepared. I was in shock. I could not believe that he did that without even trying it. His excuse? I only eat meat and potatoes. He thought it was that simple but he had no idea how badly this hurt. Or maybe he did. It was our last date.
However, for the most part, my love affair with food has become a wonderful adventure. Today I still love to cook. I love to experiment. My husband, son, other family and friends are my guinea pigs. And they love it. Someday I would love to go to a culinary school. Not so I can cook for others but so I can fall more in love with the joy of cooking.
