Cooking for Sensory Enhancement

So, I confess - for most of my life I have hated cooking (and even more so washing up), and will pretty much eat for survival (not pleasure).

For a while now I have been working on my washing up mindfulness, and creating a game of wrist mobility and body-awareness when I do it, too! 

Recently I have decided to get better at cooking, as well - for a number of reasons; one of which is as a way of practicing to use, and hopefully enhance, my senses of smell and taste (which are the least developed of my senses).

Training to improve the various special senses has appealed to me for a long while, plus cooking will give me the added bonus of something to eat. (Hhmm; maybe 'Cooking for Cranial Nerve I Enhancement™' would have been a better title..)

There's a great little graph of the bottom of page 23 of Tim Ferriss' The 4hr Chef book (adapted from Culinary Artistry - Dornenberg and Page), that shows three types/stages of chef/cook - Trade (survival cooking); Craftsman (Enjoyment) & Artist (Entertainment).  I am most definitely a survival level cook, so my goal is to reach the craftsman level by the end of the year.  (I'm digging the book too - might review it when I'm done) 

I must say, now I decided to get better at this skill, that I have already been viewing cooking in a different light.  There's something alchemical about it.. 

As for the sense enhancement, I found my friend Yogamanas' comment in my Manual Taste Enhancement blog (about Antar Mauna and working with less dominant senses) especially interesting in regards to dominant and less dominant senses 'hiding stuff' behind them... especially seeing as though I'd put off learning to cook for so long..Hhhmmm.

For me, seeking balance, I have to seek out and address the weaker aspects.  Just as weaker, less co-ordinated movement pattens need to be improved to help the functional of the body - so too the senses, it seems. 

At any rate, it is fun to be at the beginning stages (and I mean rank beginner!) of something! 

As an aside, I feel that working on enhancing the function of the special sense and their associated cranial nerve pathways will be a part of my Physical Alchemy syllabus.  I have more than a few ideas about this already, and have seen/spoken to others who've got some cool exercises for this. As I mentioned last post - It's all part of the re-enchantment of the body.