The Spiritual Side of Cooking and Eating

by Holly Lebowitz Rossi, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 9/13/2006

For people of faith, every aspect of their lives is subject to spiritual analysis and insight.Food is no different, as evidenced by a spate of new books that cast food, its preparation and consumption, in a faith-based light.

One new book, The Cosmos in a Carrot: A Zen Guide to Eating Well (Parallax Press), is less concerned with what people eat than how they eat it.Author Carmen Yuen is a practicing Buddhist who has found personal comfort in applying the Buddhist principle of mindfulness to everyday food choices.

Mindfulness is about being “fully present” at any given moment, said Yuen, who sees a social component in mindful eating as well as a personal benefit. “When you're not mindful of what you’re ingesting, then you’re not at your best to interact with others,” she said.

Yuen’s personal relationship with food improved when she adopted the mindful eating habits that she outlines in her book, which will be published in November. “It was certainly a way for me to slow down, plan ahead, think about what I’m taking in and how I feel about how I’m taking it in,” said Yuen, who is just 22 years old and beginning classes at Yale Law School.

Other authors have turned their attention to the foods that sustained important biblical figures. Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore (Greenwood Press) will be published October 30 as the second collaborative effort by writer and editor Anthony F. Chiffolo and the Rev. Rayner W. Hesse, Jr., an Episcopal priest.

The hefty book, which at 416 pages (and $75) will include photographs and maps as well as recipes, biblical narratives, and historical information, features 18 meals—13 from the Old Testament, 5 from the New.

The authors say that the Bible itself contains only one recipe (for a type of bread, in the book of Ezekiel). But biblical figures from Rebecca to King David to Esther to Jesus were all connected to stories mentioning specific foods that can be recreated fairly well in modern home kitchens. The authors feel the Bible’s lessons about food are resonant in today’s culture.

“The hospitality tradition was very primary [in the Bible],” said Chiffolo. “One extended hospitality by providing food to strangers or visitors, as well as family or friends.”

Sometimes it’s not the lessons of a faith-based approach to foods, but the practical details of preparing it that are most important. Susie Fishbein, author of the Kosher by Design series of books, will release her next title, Kosher by Design: Short on Time (Artscroll/Mesorah) in November.

Fishbein told RBL that as she traveled to various communities to talk about kosher cooking, she heard the same complaint.“They feel like they’re short-changing their families,” she said of many observant Jews who live very busy lives and feel stressed at the thought of providing exciting, delicious kosher meals every night.

Non-kosher families, Fishbein said, have the luxury of being able to pick up a rotisserie chicken and salad at the local grocery store if they’re running late and haven’t prepared dinner. But “kosher people have the same issue, but not the same solution.”

Her book fills the void, she said, by helping kosher cooks design quick meals that “they’re pleased to feed their families.”