I struggle so much with enjoying food, and making myself food I enjoy. I worked in a restaurant for years and I can make amazing food for others and be happy they're enjoying it, but I'm not good at nourishing myself. do you have any advice? I hope it's okay to ask this, I just feel like you'd know...
Oh, this is such an important question. I struggle with this too. Working in kitchens and cooking all day is exhausting. I won't pretend for a second that I always come home wanting to cook dinner for myself.
I think you and I are similar in this way, what you say about cooking for others being easier. I think working in restaurants does something to your brain. It's not even that it implants a desire to nourish others and share good food (although it can do that). I think it's more that it creates this impulse, or reflexive response to food: I cook, you eat.
Cooking for yourself is a different kind of trick. For me, it always comes back to appetite. I can't think about these things in the abstract. For example, meal prepping is actually too abstract for me. Although I understand it's straightforward and systemized, it doesn't work for me at all.
You must have some favorite foods or recipes. For me, I gravitate toward pancakes for dinner after a particularly rough day. A short stack with lots of butter and syrup, a fried egg, maybe a piece of bacon, and a glass of Riesling. It’s actually hilarious to type out. But that’s what brings me joy, and pancakes are the ultimate comfort food for me.
Other simple meals I tend to gravitate toward are pastas with tinned fish, fresh herbs, and lemon, or a chimichurri sauce over roasted fish or vegetables.
I think simple is best. Give yourself what you’re craving, and try to tap into that more so it feels unique to you, like a gift to yourself. I hope this helps...
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