What Makes Food Sensuous?

Every time I watch a foreign French film portraying the heroine as a chef, I feel as if I've  been watching a love affair.  A love affair with food. The affair is not only expressed by the care and passion in the preparation of the dishes (that would be a one sided affair) but also with the actual experience of tasting and eating in a truly present way with great appreciation and pleasure.

After raptly watching the passion, love, and appreciation being exchanged between the chef and her patrons, I always feel inspired to make incredibly complex dishes, with the best ingredients for all those I care about. Unfortunately, this inspiration lasts about 48 hours max. After I've spent copious amounts of time finding the perfect ingredients, cleaned boat loads of pots and pans and have made a complete mess of my kitchen and I'm exhausted,  I realize that while I love making wonderful food, I am really best at the appreciation aspect of the love affair.

 I do love to create.  I do receive great satisfaction serving food that looks beautiful, tastes wonderful and will nourish the body, but I do not come close to the real chefs who seek the best ingredients and will spend hours in the kitchen to perfect a sauce or a dish.

 Even though I do think of food as medicine and such an important aspect to feeling good and keeping our bodies whole, I find myself spending less and less time in my kitchen!  I'm there less, mainly because I'm putting more time into what I'm even more passionate about, learning as much as I can about how the body heals itself given the right tools and then teaching it to you and helping the people who come to me truly heal.  With my time being spent here, I'm finding that I'm having to leave recipe development up to others.  

One site that I love to check out often, not only because this young lady is a wonderful writer, but because she also knows her flavors, and textures and has a love affair with food is www.sproutedkitchen.com. Her husband has a love affair with his camera so there are delicious photos to compliment the recipes.  Sara Forte is a new mama, so her postings are not as frequent as they used to be, but there is a plenty of content already there to make it very inspiring.  

On August 20th, I will be presenting a cooking class for a little summer romance: making a 
Summer Squash Pasta with Green Goddess Dressing, Coconut Yogurt, Raw Chocolate
 Macaroons, a Whole Food Protein Shake and more.  Click below to find out more.
 http://alivingbalance.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-special-summer-cooking-class.html

What makes food sensuous is attention to detail, a love to create and an immense appreciation of wonderful flavors, textures, and a touch of fat.  Yes, I said fat-good fat which includes fresh butter, coconut oil and olive oil.  Bon Appetit!