Cooking is Alchemy
The art of cooking is looked upon by our culture as anything from mundane to high art, but what is most often overlooked is that the act of cooking is both chemical and alchemical in nature. Chemically, we are taking elements and molecules in particular states and configurations, applying heat and kinetic energy in particular amounts at particular timings, enacting chemical and biological workings on these materials, and thereby transforming the starting materials into a final altered state. Alchemically, we are transforming life, organized in multivarious facets, either while still living, or while no longer living, through the actions of force, will and nature, into an aesthetic experience as well as a sustenance that feeds life once again. In cooking, we transform base materials into something with meaning, significance. If food had only the meaning of sustaining our bodies, we would probably eat grain and raw vegetables and animal flesh, and be done with it. Instead, food travels with us through all of our signficant religious, personal and social events, our casual gatherings, and every day involves decisions we make that are a vital component to our family experience and self-expression.
