The art of cooking requires full engagement, sight, smell, touch and obviously taste but it is also a spiritual exercise.

Every Recipe is a Pilgrimage ...

The recipe begins when we listen for God's wish, a wish for the creation of life. Creativity is the sign of nature, and a quest for its fruits. Through prayer the wish is purified. In this way our daily bread becomes sacrament, bringing joyful life to the body, mind, and soul.

Know the journey of food into consciousness ...

We eat, and through the mystery of digestion it becomes our living blood. Blood that feeds our body, nurturing our skin. Blood that feeds our heart, feeding our emotions. Balanced blood the well-spring of poise and grace. Polluted blood a cloud of confusion. Emotions merge into belief, becoming our soul. This is the journey of food to consciousness. Food is not separate from awareness. Through our choice we arrived at this table and have eaten. Choices from grace returning to grace. Food becoming us, becoming me.

Food is the bridge ...

Food, the bridge from Creation to body. We merge with God's nurturing, generous garden. The cook, transforming Eden into nourishment. Taking her storms, her rain, and her soil, he knows the ingredients that will balance the blood with the wind. Your health, reaffirming your love song with nature.

It communicates directly ...

Our cravings are often a whisper, and sometimes as loud as thunder. Your eyes know the food already. Clear the mind and listen. You can hear it in the navel. The gut. You can taste it on the tongue, the gateway to the body.

The chef holds a knife like a musician; fingers dance on the piano. The meal a ballet and opera, it sings. It's a note you hear singing, creating the harmony of Eden. The meal, a glimpse of truth. Every recipe a search for God.

Recipe is just a suggestion ...

Not a formula but a genre to be explored. Each recipe communicates a style, harmony to be explored. What is the recipe trying to tell you? See it's wish. Craving is the intention; recipe is the implementation. Cook the craving. Together like pieces of a puzzle, recipe is the bridge between wish and fulfillment.

Cook the moment ...

Foods ripen the moment we need them. What has arrived in your garden, already here? When wish meets them it becomes a recipe. Open the pantry, open your mind. The recipe not rigid; make it personal. Recreate with your imagination and materials at hand. Capture the moment in the garden that is now.

Experiment, substitute ...

Why was the ingredient chosen? See the forest from the tree, the qualities instead of the substance. We never have all ingredients on hand.

The ocean in a drop ...

One recipe the door to many. Know one well. Bake it, then cook it as a soup. Who knows how many will be chosen? Stay with it. In three days you will discover its mystery.

~ John Joseph Immel