Dinner Dates and
Gentle Plates

I don’t like cooking for myself…or is it more accurate to say that I don’t like eating alone? I think it’s by far the latter, actually. The pleasure you get from cooking is primarily the overwhelming high of making others happy – the hearing, seeing and knowing, above all, that you’ve made something between enjoyable and fascinating to eat, and, more importantly, the people important to you have enjoyed it. Most of us can follow a recipe and with a little care make something worth eating, but it’s the quietly satisfying inner joy of presenting good food that’s loved by others that drives a great home cook – and I suspect many of the most time-hardened professional chefs.

Whether we like it or not, as a species, we thrive on acceptance and positively glow at praise, but with cooking it’s something else. We’re not looking for applause, kind reviews or awards, although recognition is always uplifting, so why are we so hooked? Because we’re giving rather than taking – simple as that.

The senses at a romantic dinner are undoubtedly heightened, are they not? Whether first date or fiftieth anniversary, it’s all about the emotion at the table – the giving and sharing of food and the celebration of being together, or the hectic buzz of a family eating at the table, or the fun of friends ‘breaking bread’ together. That’s probably an old-fashioned expression, but I like all the foodie connotations it brings in my head – it’s all about satisfying senses in others and ourselves.

The recipes here are ideas for evening meals, whether romantic or platonic, families sharing or gentle suppers for one. The intention is to get us to eat together wherever possible, and, when we have to eat alone, not to shrink from the worth in cooking for ourselves.

Somebody once told me, or I read somewhere, that in order to truly love others, you must first learn to love yourself. I believe, likewise, if you can learn to like cooking for yourself, you’ll love cooking for others more. (Somewhere inside me there is a little hippy trying very hard not to come out – he’s very happy right where he is and he’s got the record collection to prove it!)