wholefood kitchen

Jean Torné is returning to London to give another of his masterclasses in wholefood cooking. The week-long Seasonal Kitchen class (weekends and evenings) is scheduled at Concord Institute from Jan 22-28, 2012. Previously Manager and Head Chef of the Concord culinary school, Jean now leaves his Switzerland base just once a year to pass on his ongoing explorations in the realm of food and wholefood cooking in these classes. It’s quite an opportunity, for anyone serious about engaging with their relationship with food, cooking, and their wellbeing. But it’s not all serious, either. The context behind this particular programme is to question the models we inherit around wholefood cooking, and return to a spirit of curiosity, surprise and invitation around food. His intention is that each participant really gets the inescapable connection between cooking, joy (or love) and wellbeing. It will be very practical, insightful. It will incorporate training in cooking techniques, which will be of interest to cooks of all levels of ability. But it will also be a celebration. An acknowledgment of cooking as an expression of love. For nature, food, abundance, nourishment of yourself, and cooking and sharing food with others. Places are limited, so if you would like to register please contact me directly, or give Concord Institute a call on 020 7607 1140. For more details, please visit the Concord website.

I’m delighted to announce ‘Soup Kitchen No.1:’ the first in a planned series of cooking classes which will be held regularly on Monday Evenings at Happy Kitchen Canteen. It will be led by locally sourced wholefood and macrobiotic cooks, starting with me! (pictured, right) My intention is to share the joy of Home Cooking, starting with simple but hearty soups, created from scratch. By taking a moment to produce home-made stock, you create a window of time to immerse yourself in your kitchen, ground yourself, and create a simple, nourishing meal for yourself and your loved ones. It’s been a foundation for me to establish a simple practise and relationship to wholefood cooking, particularly in these autumn/winter months. In the opening class on Monday 24 October, we’ll create such a stock, then use it to make a hearty, nourishing Vegetable & Miso Soup which we’ll then enjoy with freshly baked Sourdough bread from the E5 Bakehouse. There’s only 20 places, so get in quick! To book, call 020 8525 4994 or email bookings@happykitchen.org.uk. Many thanks to Lisa and the Happy Kitchen team, and Ben at the E5 Bakehouse for their support.

A life lesson conducted by Masterchef Jean Torné, on the opening weekend of the Jumpstart residential programme held at Oxon Hoath in Kent. Once again Jean presents an extraordinary invitation for exploring our relationship with food and cooking. He invites the class to bring an awareness to our engagement with food which takes it into an evolutionary context. ‘In the kitchen, we create life.’ In keeping with the invitation to look at food with new eyes, we encounter certain alien ‘creatures’ supplied by Global Organics which challenge our perceptions, and preconceptions.

Red Cauliflower, after being blanched, transforms into vivid purple Beings.

Tomatoes anyone? Not the prepacked, uniform, tasteless variety we are familiar with, but the explosions of colour and flavour of Heirloom Tomatoes.

Rows of Sardines, fresh from the Sea, prior to coating in Sea Salt and plain flour and Panfrying.

Day one of HeartSpace, a three day workshop held at Concord this weekend. As explained on the website: ‘HeartSpace is a course on human relationships. In particular, it is about what is made possible when human beings do connect with each other in an authentic heart-space.’ Nourishing the programme and the participants was a team led by the irrepressible Jean Torné. This is how lunch on the first day unfolded. A meal of Carrot and Squash Soup followed by Millet, Sweet Potato and Tarragon Triangles; Puy Lentil Sauce with Carrot cubes; Blanched Kale, Pickled Red Onion Salad with Toasted Nuts.

Jean Torné runs a cooking class for participants of the Foundation Course at Concord Institute, where he supervised the creation of a delightful meal of baked Polenta, a Chickpea stew, stirfried Kale, Organic Chicken poached in Wine, Bayleaf and Peppercorns. In the midst of this, he was able to communicate in a profound way, the choices we face when it comes to food. Exercising consciousness in our decisions, and in doing so enabling and supporting the development of our own consciousness. Simple, powerful teachings from a master in the Culinary Arts.

I honestly can’t remember, exactly. But who cares when it looks (and tasted) his good? Another magical plate from Jean Torne, Master Chef, as served up during a recent Foundation Course lunch break. Anyone for a Pret sandwich?

A feast of colour which emerged from the kitchen during Power Intent & Evolution: a residential programme run by the Concord Institute at Oxon Hoath over the weekend. It’s difficult to put into words, the journey that took place. It was a privilege to work in Jean Torne’s kitchen, a place where we don’t just prepare glorious food, but where we quite literally ‘cook our life.’ The story is told, in some form, through the food that was created. A dance with life, with ourselves. A step into the unknown, witnessing the joy and celebration available in life lived with an open heart.

Early in the Foundation Course programme, I received an invitation to cook a Saturday lunch for the participants. I was nervous, excited, apprehensive. Yet I was being offered something I had longed to do, to take on a leadership role within the Concord kitchen. Jean Torne, in his inimitable way, supported my stepping forward into the role. He coached me towards a meal plan, and even gave me a head start by preparing parts of the meal ahead of time.

The invitation I heard was to take on a role, beyond what I was capable of doing. As the day panned out, it became clear that the role was definitely beyond what ‘I’ was capable of: the ‘I’ that is trapped in fear, self concern and significance. The one who seeks attention, who wants to do a good job, be seen, and be seen to do a good job. (The holy trinity!) The one who is fearful of making mistakes. Who wants to please. The one who is nervous about stepping into a role I have seen others fill with such grace and aplomb. A concern about measuring up, to the standards set by Jean Torne, Mutsuko Johnson and all those I have cooked alongside in the Concord kitchen.

There was a small, committed team on board. Myself and Sarah Hall, supported by Jean and the remarkable Foundation Course Production team. The cooking progressed according to plan, with parts of the meal prepared in a largely orderly fashion. However, when the finished plate appeared in front of me, I received a huge shock. It was an explosion of life and colour; rich, golden autumn foods. It bore some resemblance to the meal sketch I had made earlier, but it seemed to have emerged from somewhere else completely. It had very little do to with me personally. It didn’t feel like I had created much of it, at all. It gave me a feeling, more than a thought, of what I was capable of creating when ‘I’ was out of the equation. And that it was possible to create something with others, of a magnitude infinitely greater to what I was capable of creating on my own. I felt incredibly humbled.

My willingness to say ‘yes’ to the ludicrous invitations Concord present me with has stood me in good stead. My journey, through cooking, has been a process of letting go: of the idea I have of myself, of food, of pretty much everything. A surrender of control, and a knowing, which increasingly reveals itself to be a limited world. My body, my spirit, is becoming open to nourishment, and I am accessing a true freedom around food. I am becoming more skilled in the kitchen, but I am also letting go of the idea of what it means to be ‘good at cooking.’ I am learning to surrender to my intuition, my senses, and to a greater order of things. I enter the kitchen as the natural place to create alignment and balance in myself, in my life. A place to come to earth. I feel nourished, and grateful. Tihei Mauri Ora! (I am Alive)

Kevin Helas

An article which featured in the Concord Newsletter, Winter 2011. The full newsletter is available to download here.

‘There’s a Rat in mi kitchen
What am I gonna do?
There’s a Rat in mi kitchen
What am I gonna do?
I’m gonna teach that Rat, that’s what I’m gonna do,
I’m gonna teach that Rat.’*

I am that Rat. And its in the kitchen that I have been conducting an experiment. The experiment comes in the exploration of a question: ‘What is my relationship with food?’ Equally, it could be rephrased simply as ‘Who am I?’

The journey I have taken has been deceptive. Initially, my prevailing love of food drew me in, and inspired an engagement with and commitment to learning the arts of wholefood cooking. Yet this passion, as strong as it is, constitutes just a taste of what is really available in the kitchen. The kitchen provides an invitation to engage in the world with a full and rich sensuality.

There is a version of sensuality I have always used, but primarily as a form of escape to create a separation between myself and the world. Through cooking I have uncovered the lack of trust I have in myself, in the world, on a sensual level, which explains the efforts I have made to maintain this sense of separateness and isolation.

How has this become apparent?

Primarily, by engaging in the practice of cooking in the context provided by Jean Torne, Mutsuko Johnson, Melanie Waxman and other teachers within the Concord Institute kitchen. It was during Jean’s recent Seasonal Kitchen programme that yet another layer of the metaphorical, transformational ‘Onion’ was stripped away.

At the start of the week, Jean laid out an extraordinary context, asking us to voice the question ‘Is this food?’ when faced with choices about what we select to nourish and sustain ourselves. This began a week-long exploration of awareness.

There was an invitation to develop tastes and flavours slowly and patiently. We experimented by cooking using a low flame. We cooked slowly, but used the extra time to simply connect with the activity at hand, rather than filling the available space with another action, as we have learned to do in our multi-tasking obsessed world.

We were encouraged to taste others’ food, comparing the difference in flavours, textures, saltiness, degree of cooking. Infinite variations emerged from a single recipe, based on who was cooking, how was cooking, why was cooking. We often took an hour or so to ‘finish’ our dishes, We paid careful attention to the fine-tuning of flavours, tastes and smells, and learned to appreciate the distinction between ‘adding’ and ‘pouring.’

And did we learn recipes? Yes, and No. They acted as a guide throughout the week, but we connected with cooking as an activity which comes from a different place. Less cerebral, more whole-body. We navigated through dishes and the menu as a class, and as groups. On one occasion, the group I was working with consulted a printed recipe, and we ground to a halt. Suddenly there were clashes of opinion, interpretations, debates and confusion. The difference was palpable, and we returned immediately to the ‘whole body’ approach.

During Jean’s course, and certainly afterwards, other things have come to light. Faced with food, and choices about food, I am presented with myself, my thought patterns, my habits around food.  ‘It is mealtime, I must eat.’ (regardless of whether I am actually hungry or not) ‘I must finish what’s on the plate’ (even though I’m already full, 2/3 of the way through a meal)’ At mealtimes, I eat too much, and too quickly, simply from habit. I encounter an insatiable craving, a hunger in me which goes beyond my connection with food, and indicates a state of survival I live in. And then, after eating too much? My body shuts down. I need to sleep. I feel frustrated, annoyed at myself, for I am aware that I am responsible. Yet I cling to my blanket of powerlessness, for the sense of security and familiarity it provides.

Outside of the class, I found it difficult initially to recreate the meals, simply because it requires a level of patience and commitment to myself I am not accustomed to. A commitment to a level of responsibility for my own nourishment, for my own wellbeing, but also an opportunity to enter into a new world , one where I am engaged, connected and able to make a full contribution to, and connection with others.

The experiment continues. Through engaging with wholefood cooking, I am learning the benefits of slowing down, taking time, listening to what is around me, listening to my body, to myself. There are messages which are starting to come through, beneath the noise that buzzes around me, which are less to do with ‘me.’ All that seems to be required is to enter the kitchen regularly, with a sense of patience, sensitivity, awareness, and gratitude.

My heart goes out to Jean Torne and teachers of the Concord Institute kitchen. They have created a space which holds up a mirror, revealing the person I am. I have encountered someone who is at times vulnerable, anxious, naive, impatient and arrogant, but as time goes on I am beginning to see my own breath form on the glass.

The world outside beckons.

Kevin Helas

An article which featured in Issue 19 of the Concord Institute Newsletter, available online.
Image taken from ‘Ratatouille,’ a remarkable film about the he(art) of cooking, and making a difference. See the trailer.

*apologies to UB40 for the lyric modification.

Members of ‘Unit 1′ reconvened to create recipes from Jean’s Seasonal Kitchen. I was joined by Coretta and Yukiko to prepare a remarkable meal. A delicious White Bean & Rosemary Soup to start was followed by this plate, a combination of Quinoa with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds and Olives, Blanched Broccoli stirfried with Ginger and Garlic, and Deep fried Mackerel fillets with Sweet Rice Vinegar Sauce.

Best of all, there was enough left over for a takeaway Bento box for my travel to Paris the next day. It beat the onboard fare hands down!