by Victor Béguin, Chef
La Bonne Table -- Culinary Art School and Catering Service

THE EMPTINESS of your stomach -- obvious. But there are other emptinesses before that. The emptiness of the mouth, of the nose and before that the emptiness of the mind and the spirit.

What emptiness in my mind? The emptiness in your stomach creates a certain emptiness in your mind. Maybe a bit hungry, which you may feel in your stomach, but usually you feel it in your mind first. A certain food comes to mind before you have any hunger pangs. Or you may be ravenous and feel it in both mind and stomach, or maybe so low on fuel that you cannot think straight so your mind is literally empty of the nutrients you need to think.

The other emptiness of mind comes from not tasting anything good. This is an emptiness which may last for years before it is filled. (The long term effects of this lack of taste are evident all around us). The taste buds can differentiate between an astounding range of tastes. The basic six are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot and pungent. If a meal does not have all of these flavors (to some degree) then it may leave an emptiness, even a craving for something. (An emptiness on the tongue and the mind.)

Our fine sense of taste and smell evolved over millions of years and is one of our primary tools for survival. (Women apparently have better taste buds than men.) Maybe because of ancient differentiation in labor: "you catch -- I cook. To distinguish what is good to eat, what is at least edible and sustaining, and what is toxic. To satisfy the first is sublime, the second necessary and the third obvious. The emptiness of modern mass produced food is that there is no one in the kitchen thinking about anything but the most narrow range of taste of those trained to it.

Another interesting fact is that the taste for sweetness is innate. In nature it means something good for you. With modern processing, we are left with the sweetness, but neither the range of flavor (when did you last taste a peach ripe from a tree with all it perfume intact) nor the nutrients (phytonutrients, minerals and flavanoids) which refining removes. Hence the term "empty calories." The craving for sweets may actually be an indication of certain nutrient deficiencies caused by the very sweets one craves, but which the body still expects to be good. So to satisfy select, the freshest, least processed, whole foods, locally grown and in season.

The other modern emptiness, is the limited experience of family and community dining. Occasions for communal meals and festivals have diminished to a few events a year. All civilizations before and around us today have many more opportunities for both special banquets, and family and community meals. In fact as important as the food is, the conviviality of eating together is considered more important. An elaborate and expensive feast, consumed in some soulless room, without the company of good friends and family is empty. Whereas, the simplest of meals, in such company will leave you full in spirit, mind and body.

So when you cook, think of the fact that you are filling more than the emptiness of the stomach, and more than the desire for taste, but are responsible for creating a communal environment in which to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

As a cook you can dream up exactly what you want and help others to dream up what they want. So it comes from imagination, stimulated by desire, by memory of something good and of course by hunger. We live to eat and eat to live, to fill the emptiness. And at times to realize that it is alright to be empty, for a while.