My Cooking Style

In the corner of my kitchen counter, I have a quilted bread carrier.  It was part of a Christmas exchange gift at last year's company party.  To be honest, it only ended up in my hands after the festivities were finished, when another woman in attendance and I decided to swap.  (Given that my final gift in the exchange was a gourmet coffee set, and I can't drink coffee . . .)

I've never used this quilted carrier, but I found I thoroughly appreciated the sentiment.  It's very similar to the well-known "Live, Laugh, Love", but it was only recently I understood how appropriate the substitution really is for me.

A few months ago, I picked up a book via Amazon called Cooking For Geeks.  I can hear you now . . . "What?  Geeks?"    Yep, geeks.  You know, those people who get completely distracted by science (fiction or fact) and who can't keep themselves from reading about the cool new stuff in technology . . . The ones who, in junior high, read all the James Blish books on the original Star Trek series enough they could identify any episode by title before the teaser was complete.  Or the ones who, in high school, back when computers were only just starting to make it into homes, completed home-study courses in Basic programming and in soldering.  (In my case, my dad had me do them, suggesting that geeks are made, not born . . . maybe.  Love you, Dad!)  At any rate, I went into absolute ecstasy reading about the science of cooking when I got my hands on Cooking For Geeks, and I still get distracted if I open the cover, so I must be in the target audience.  (Note to self:  remove said book from my office desk . . .)

In the introduction, the author includes an interview with Brian Wansink, professor at Cornell University, in which he discusses cooking styles.   There is also a short self-questionaire and explanation about five basic "Cooking Styles".  What is it which motivates the various cooks out there to cook and to select the foods they do?

When I went through the questionaire, it was clear one style dominated my thinking:  "Giving".  This is the description of the "Giving" style after the questionaire:

Friendly, well-liked, and enthusiastic, giving cooks seldom experiment, they love baking, and like to serve tried-and-true family favorites, although that sometimes means serving less healthful foods.

Now, that's not to say everyone fits completely into a category.  I do some experimenting, or, at least, I obviously like to expand my baking horizons, which would fit into the "Innovative" category.  And I do try to make our food a bit more healthy, substituting in some whole grains and lower-fat ingredients whenever possible ("Healthy").  But of the available categories, "Giving" is the one into which I fit the best.

Which brings me back to that quilted carrier and "Live, Laugh, Bake."  Professor Wansink refers to "Giving" cooks as those who "see the food they make as giving love."  So it would seem that for me, "Live, Laugh, Bake", is actually very similar to "Live, Laugh, Love".

Gotta love it!  (Or would that be "bake it" . . . ?)

(The part of the book dealing with this topic is from pages 8-15.)