“Cooking is not only about what’s good to eat, it’s about what will truly support how we are and what we need. And that is the most delicious and satisfying food there can be."
When our two kids were new, Ann and I worked mostly from home. Patients would stream through, and of course I was cooking, a lot. I would see people in and out of their acupuncture sessions, between running my own work and minding the little ones.
I remember someone who had finished what must have been a very profound treatment. She looked a bit dazed, so I invited her to sit for a few minutes. She was a bit too “floaty” to be sent into the New York City streets just yet. “Sit for a few minutes, I have something for you.” I went to the kitchen, quickly cooked some fresh peas, added them to steaming rice from the family rice cooker, splashed around some olive oil, pink salt from the ancient salt flats in Australia, fresh mint leaves, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. “Here, taste this, it will help you feel grounded and ready for the rest of your day.” It’s funny, I don’t remember who this was or what she looked like, but I remember that she needed the energetics of that dish, and I remember the tone of her voice, “Wow, this is incredible, and so simple! And I do feel back to myself. If I could eat like this everyday…. Could you send me more recipes?”
This would happen again and again. Friends would ring the doorbell to pick up some herbs, and they would stay for dinner. The menu would naturally shift to suit what was needed, whether cold symptoms (a quick soup with bok choy and peppercorns), fatigue (steamed millet with white fish cooked in butter, parsley and asparagus), or anxiety (a dinner omelette with shiitake mushrooms and plenty of parsley over steamed bulgur). And always there was the question, “Can you send me recipes, can you teach me to cook like this?”
There is a new way of thinking involved here. Everybody eats and lot of people can cook really well. What is missing is knowledge of how foods work as we eat and digest them, what is called the energetics of the foods. Food energetics is a healing tradition thousands of years old. My mission is to bring it forward with modern foods that are easy to find, along with opening the door to understanding how to know for ourselves what we need to really thrive.
The request for recipes led to my first two books, Welcoming Food, Diet as Medicine for Home Cooks and Other Healers. Book One walks the reader through the shift into seeing the relation of food and health, while Book Two is a full set of recipes for home cooking with each recipe “decoded” for its food energetics.
I’m very glad you’re here, my space to share thoughts and recipes. While the details of food for healing can become complex, the essence is simple, based on common sense and the keen observations of generations of masters. Along with these occasional blogs, I am preparing several in-depth courses that lead step by step through how to apply food energetics, so everyone can have this knowledge, whether completely new to the ideas or very experienced in cooking and healing. It’s an invaluable tradition that can transform our approach to food, free of trends, fads, or excess.
Cooking is not only about what’s good to eat, it’s about what will truly support how we are and what we need. And that is the most delicious and satisfying food there can be.
Andrew
June, NYC