I recently read such a delightful book and it’s one I think this community would really enjoy: Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table by Shauna Niequist.

The whole premise of the book is that the author is sharing her love of gathering around the table. She shares several personal stories that revolve around her experiences with food, her relationship with food, and the joy that she finds in hosting people at the dinner table. It really made me want to call some friends up and organize a dinner party! It also helped give me a renewed perspective on the special work we perform in the kitchen.

I’d love to share a couple of favorite quotes with you:

“What’s becoming clearer and clearer to me is that the most sacred moments, the ones in which I feel God’s presence most profoundly, when I feel the goodness of the world most arrestingly, take place at the table…. It’s not, actually, strictly, about food for me. It’s about what happens when we come together, slow down, open our homes, look into one another’s faces, listen to one another’s stories… It happens when we enter the joy and the sorrow of the people we love, and we join together at the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it’s not strictly about food, it doesn’t happen without it. Food is the starting point, the common ground, the thing to hold and handle, the currency we offer to one another”.

I love that! There really is a sacredness to gathering at the table, and her words speak what I feel! And it really makes all that work you do in the kitchen feel a little more special, doesn’t it? I also love the analogy of food being the currency. It’s true- conversation around the table just isn’t the same if you’re not breaking bread together.

“Try Keller’s three-times plan. Make it once according to the recipe. Then you know how the chef or recipe writer intended it to taste. Practice your scales. And then write your own version of the recipe. And then make it entirely from memory, at which point it’s yours”.

This is something I really want to be better with. I love trying new recipes- but I’m such a stickler for rules that sometimes I have a hard time branching out and tweaking things. But I love the idea of making it 3 times for just that reason- to try it “by the rules”, but then tweaking it and making it your own special recipe, suited to your tastes.

“...It isn’t about perfection, and it isn’t about performance. You’ll miss the richest moments in life- the sacred moments when we feel God’s grace and presence through the actual faces and hands of the people we love- if you’re too scared or too ashamed to open the door. I know it’s scary, but throw open the door anway…”

This really hit home for me. I often have the desire to entertain, but with 6 kids and a dog, my home is not exactly Instagram-worthy. But I’ve let that keep me from strengthening friendships and building relationships! Most people are not going to be judging me by the state of my home or if I’ve showered that day- they’ll remember how I make them feel. Which is hopefully welcomed and loved!

She adds to this concept later on in the book: “...Entertaining isn’t a sport or a competition. It’s an act of love, if you let it be. You can twist it and turn it into anything you want- a way to show off your house, a way to compete with your friends, a way to earn love and approval. Or you can decide that every time you open your door, it’s an act of love, not performance or competition or striving. You can decide that every time people gather around your table, your goal is nourishment, not neurotic proving. You can decide.”

What a powerful concept- nourishment. And truly, that’s when entertaining and hosting and cooking really become fulfilling. When we focus on nourishment- both of body and soul- cooking and entertaining becomes a kind of sacred work. One that I’m happy to take part in, rather than a chore to be dreaded and avoided.

I seriously just loved this book. It is so uplifting, and helps put the work we do in the kitchen into such a sacred, special, fulfilling perspective. As a community of chefs, hopefully we each can find joy in being in the kitchen, in gathering loved ones around our tables and nourishing them with good food and loving hearts.

    Camille Hoffmann
    Monthly Newsletter Contributor since 2014
    Email the author! camille@dvo.com