Top chefs and foodies agree | There’s so much pleasure to be had from food

The pleasure of eating, then, may be the best available

standard of our health…Eating with the fullest

pleasure…is perhaps the profoundest

enactment of our connection with the world. ~ Wendell Berry

Yotam Ottolenghi, a chef and writer, shared something in an interview with Sporkful host Dan Pashman. It was along the lines of pleasure and it struck a chord. For Ottolenghi, food is about bringing people together. It’s about love and joy and most importantly, pleasure.

At one point in the interview he states that food, from the act of making to the gift of sharing should evoke pleasure. I wholeheartedly agree. He and D. Pashman discussed a complex current to social dynamics which can interrupt pleasure. A food landscape divided by clear boundaries. There are now clear identifiable groups. Paleo, vegan, vegetarian, Ayurvedic, macrobiotic, keto, are just a few. 

Gone are the days you can invite a group of people over, make a massive feast and everyone will eat it. Asking and making accommodations is the new normal. To what extant do you think this has shifted the ease of getting together and sharing a meal? People worry and compare and judge what’s better or healthier in a landscape of highly processed and packaged foods. In some cases causing more division than connection. Is this one of the reasons why home cooking has become a thing no one has time for or doesn’t care to learn? I cannot argue how clearly Patience Gray sums it up with, “each person, through instinct, habit or prejudice, likes to pursue his or her own way to health.”

For me, the pleasure is in the connection. Pleasure, I would also argue, is something that we all seek out constantly. How we do it and through what means clearly varies. The connection to plants and the earth, that is. Eating reminds me that I am a part of this planet. It is a primal reminder of how dependent and connected we are. Planting, tending, harvesting, and preparing plants into food is simple yet profoundly rewarding. Seeing a seed sprout, germinate, and bear fruit is sheer delight.

With my years in the Ayurvedic wellness world I have seen so much stress and tension arise from food. Food is put into yes and no columns where discipline becomes depravity and nourishment seems glutinous. Something which has brought people together for millennia, for nourishment, for sustenance, and certainly for pleasure has taken an interesting trajectory. For me, and I’m sure a lot of other folks, believe that food is simple. It can be grown in your backyard and prepared with love, with recipes from our grandmothers. No need to photograph it, just say grace and eat.

I am a prolific gardener and have been tending a vegetable garden for the better part of 15 years. I think it is the most rebellious and brave thing we as humans can and should do. The hard work is incredibly satisfying, and the stewardship is pleasure which can be shared. Whether from a garden or the market, delight in the pleasure gained from creating and sharing food. A garden just loves, and I love back!

So, with pleasure, make space – a ceremony – share platters of food with each other – surround a table – this makes us human – for it is life itself.

Make space to eat something delicious that you made yourself. There is a ceremony for this practice. Being at home and sharing food is such a valuable thing. It is superhuman. ~Yottam Ottolenghi