For Wilshire Baptist Church
We got hooked on Food Network cooking competition shows this summer. We were on a business and vacation trip to Washington, D.C., and the television in our hotel room was a mess at night. We couldn’t find any shows we knew or wanted to watch — a first world problem for sure — so we parked the TV on the Food Network.
One of our favorite shows on the Food Network is “Chopped,” where experienced chefs compete against each other to prepare appetizers, entrees and desserts. Each course is a timed event with losers “chopped” after each round. But the real fun is at the beginning of each round when the contestants open picnic baskets to reveal a surprising mix of major ingredients they are required to use. Everyone has the same ingredients but it is left up to them what they do with the ingredients including what they add.
Sometimes the mystery ingredients are truly strange. We’ve seen cotton candy, cow’s tongue, dandelion greens, squid ink, lotus root, reindeer pate, you get the idea. The chefs may scratch their heads for a moment, but then they rush around grabbing other ingredients and tools and after 30 minutes of chopping, mixing, baking, boiling and every technique imaginable they create a dish that looks table ready for a fine restaurant. Along the way they share pieces of their personal stories and what that brings to their dishes.
What intrigues me most is the depth of knowledge of the competing chefs. They have to know what flavors go together, the chemical interactions of fats and acids, cooking tolerances of different ingredients, and the pros and cons of frying vs. broiling vs. baking vs. boiling.
It’s a lot like creating family or community. They’re made of mixtures of personalities and talents — some familiar, some enjoyable, some peculiar, some irritating — and it takes some courage and basic knowledge of human nature to make them work. Even if you don’t know what to do with the other people around the table, you at least should know how to handle yourself. That’s a starting point for harmony rather than chaos.
On “Chopped” the ingredients are chosen based on a foundational premise that every ingredient is redeemable and can contribute to something that is ultimately satisfying. It’s the same around our table. Even the oddest among us are redeemable. We just have to use our patience and our spirit of adventure to figure it out.
So, here’s to a Happy Thanksgiving with a great mixture of dishes on the table and a fun mix of characters around the table.