The Cross & Cleaver. Where Heaven Meets Earth: How Was Everything… or… See You Next Week?
How was everything … or … see you next week?
I profoundly dislike those two questions customarily asked in restaurants and churches. Because, in my experience, they by and large generate a customary nod, generic expression of appreciation and some non-committing answer. I am thinking of the saying, “Don’t ask the question you don’t want to know the answer to.”
I once had a group lunch prepared by a winner of Top Chef Canada©. Or maybe MasterChef Canada©, I am not sure. During the conversation, it came out that I sometimes play with food. Somehow the chef came over and asked the dreadful: “How was everything?” Encouraged by the group, and the chef, I offered my opinion. The chef was rather unimpressed with what I had to say. Though, I admit, I could have been kinder.
Soooo… HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?… This series, this quick journey through what is involved in preparing, and offering, a meal and a classic Protestant Christian worship experience. Could you relate as a participant or as a dining guest? How were the recipes? Did you try?
I tried to write and reflect, from a perspective of what I consider to be the basic ingredients. Both theologically and culinarily speaking. There seem to be new restaurants and new churches popping up weekly and on every other proverbial corner. There are various new trends and fads in both worlds. I was trying to see past the noise, the glitter, and the kitsch. I was trying to recover that which made them possible, some sense of history and tradition. “How it all began,” as the saying goes. I often kept in front of me a quote I am very fond of. It comes from British chef, Marco Pierre White, who said: “We live in the age of refinement, not invention.” In other words, there is nothing new under the sun. You need a solid, hearty loaf of bread to make a sandwich, crackers just will not do. You need a solid knowledge of church history and tradition to be the actual church community, just reading the Bible without understanding it just will not do.
I believe if the foundations are present, then we are going to be properly nourished. When respectful curiosity and courage abound, magic happens. In the kitchen and in the church.
Here is a quote: “I believe religious leaders must always, at the same time, be three things: proclaimers of the truth, conservers of the tradition, and reformers. Those are not inseparable. As Lutheran, our Church was born as a reforming movement within the Catholic Church. Martin Luther, for whom we are named, was a reformer. The Reformation for us did not stop in the sixteenth century. It is a part of our ongoing identity”. /Mark Hanson, third Presiding Bishop of the ELCA/
I would like to think the same can be said about cooks or chefs … they are to proclaim the truths of the kitchen (yes there are some), preserve the classic foundations of cooking and experiment. These are not inseparable.
Spiritually, for me, one of those foundational elements is the Lord’s Prayer.
In the kitchen—there has to be bread (preferably good, wholesome sourdough). And here are my three favourite sandwiches:
-Bread, butter, Swiss or cheddar cheese, cheap square pink ham, thickly sliced tomato, generous sprinkle of Mrs. Dash.
-Bread, butter, thickly sliced English cucumber, truffle salt, pepper.
-Bread, crunchy peanut butter, thick slices of pickles (bread-and-butter, dill, whatever). TRY IT! I DARE YOU!
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