I’ve been cooking a lot lately, and cooking reminds me of Mason.
Cooking with Mason starts at the supermarket. When he was growing up, he says, the supermarket was 30 minutes away from his home. Back then, grocery shopping was an event.
It still is.
October 4th, Chicago- We stroll down the aisles at Whole Foods, tasting and speculating, asking what’s fresh, and have you ever cooked this? He asks the man working the produce aisle what he recommends, what’s in season, what he likes to eat. The guy answers, and then shakes Mason’s hand, says he’s a real gentleman. Not everyone that comes in is like that. People, they’re on their phones, they knock stuff over and don’t pick it up. “Can I offer you two some honey crisp apples? You’re making banana bread? Why, we have whole boxes of bananas in the back that are too far gone to sell but we’re allowed to give them away, hang on a second. I’m glad I ran into you guys, I hate wasting food, please, take as many as you need.”
I’m always amazed at the ease he has connecting with people, Mason tells me he learned it from his dad. “Every time he leaves the house he tries to make a new friend.”
Cooking with Mason is organic. It’s smelling (‘whiffing’), tasting (‘You want to take a look at that?’), approximating (‘A honk of this, a whack of that’). It’s scaly, prehistoric piles of dinosaur kale on the counter, a Korean kitchen knife worn with use, its faded wooden handle bound with twisted wire. It’s rough handfuls of ingredients thrown into pots, hot spoonfuls fed into open mouths. It’s raw ingredients bitten off in thick chunks to taste for sweetness.
A recipe calls for a cup of sugar, but it doesn’t know the tartness of the rhubarb, the sugar already in the apples, the hunger level of the chef. Baking is precise, food is imprecise.
Cooking with Mason is getting your hands dirty. It’s kneading the dough, massaging the kale, finger-testing the temperature of the water before the yeast goes in.
When he can, Mason carries a big tupperware bin full of tools and ingredients with him- spices, bags of tea, sharp knives. Pink Himalayan salt, smoked paprika, cardamom pods from Korea. There was a time when spices were more valuable than silver; now they’re commonplace. Gypsies can live like kings.
Cooking with Mason is a lesson in being present. He is constantly tasting and touching- snapping off a bite of rhubarb to see how sour it is before eyeballing the sugar; licking a spoon then rummaging through the cabinet to shove his nose deep into a bag of tea or a jar of spices. He gets in close to see the texture of the dough he’s kneading. “See how the gluten is forming into strands? That’s good, as long as you don’t overdo it.” And while he is undisputedly running the show in the kitchen, it always feels like a community endeavor. “Do you think this needs more salt?” He offers me a ladle of homemade beef broth. “You can’t add too much salt, that’s what makes it pop!”
I’m constantly surprised by the well rounded experience of cooking with Mason- the smells, the textures, the stories. There is tangibility to his creations. This is food, made out of products of the earth, formed by human hands. This is food that won’t leave leftovers- the smells draw people together from other rooms, other houses. “You made the cheese yourself?”
Cooking with Mason is less like getting a math problem right than like getting a painting right. It’s constantly evolving, there’s no right answer, but you can recognize good art when you see it.
What’s the takeaway? In my wandering lifestyle food is something I’ve learned to spend good money on- it influences my health, my enjoyment of life, it supports businesses and farms and people I like, supports values such as local vs. global industrial, organic vs. non-organic. The food you exchange for money goes into your body, and the money goes out and influences the world.
Every. Single. Day.
In high school I used to silk screen T-shirts. One day Mr. Dean, my history teacher, requested one that said simply, “Eating is a Political Act”. Eating influences our economy, our environment, our neighborhoods and communities, our friends and families, our homes. Eating is a reason to come together, it’s an investment of our time, our money, ourselves. Cooking with Mason has shown me that the closer your cooking reflects your values, the better it will taste.
And Mason’s cooking tastes great.
Mason’s Summer Salad
Eyeball everything, adjust to taste.
Dressing (Blend together in blender):
Olive oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Balsamic, Nutritional yeast, Seaweed, Miso, Mustard, Tamari, Maple syrup
Toss:
Kale (stems off, massaged with sesame oil), Salad (spring mix), Pumpkin seeds (pan fried), Avocado, Beets (grated), Mozzarella, Portabello fried in butter, Blueberries
Enjoy.