All things are connected. All things are one. If this is true, everything we impart to our bodies, whether vegetation or animal is something that is already a part of us. In a Whole world, the relationship we have with this food would be mutual. Then why do we (as a general rule) not behave in accord? We ignore this connection in the most basic ways. We find ourselves when eating, not paying attention, reading a magazine, eating it from a take out container or pot. When we prepare food we impose ourselves upon the resource at hand. We make all the decisions (usually automatic) without finding that relationship to the thing that eventually will enter our body and hopefully nourish it. We are under the mistaken notion that by just ingesting the food, we are nourished. And we are, but only partially. When we make a relationship with the animal flesh or vegetable before us in the preparation process, a symbiosis of sorts is created which is rich in impressions, an aspect of eating almost always under rated, unnoticed and unacknowledged. This type of food has a higher vibration, nourishes more of me.
Digestion starts with the impressions received by our six senses. So, proper digestion starts in the eyes, and nose, touch, and even ears (ie: crackling sound of fat in a pan meeting flesh or vegetable). This of course happens before it even gets to the gustatory sense. The parasympathetic nervous system (our relaxation response) kicks in when the attention is related to what is at hand. Our senses trigger the bile juices in the gastric system that begins the process of digestion. This whole process makes the intake of impressions and food Whole; it's a primary impression. So, it's not purely "aesthetic" or even a luxury to give attention to presentation. It's imperative to our Wholeness.
It's a mistake to see an act of care (attentive detail to presentation) as an extraneous ego act ('it looks nice'). To be mistaken in this way is an example of how far we have devolved in our culture in regards to self care; care of what we see, our impressions and care for our digestion process, which is greatly compromised at this time between the surreal industrial-farmed product we are provided and the diminishment of what is important (ie: eating off a plate vs eating out of a box). As we begin to attend to this vital relationship, our sensitivity and impressions become more refined.
We have five receptors on our tongues that register sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and pungent (the sublime combination of sweet and sour). Western palates have been exclusively indoctrinated to sweet and salt through proliferative processed food use, marketing and habit. To consider that all five qualities of flavor be present at a meal is an exercise in finding unity. Likewise, providing diverse color and texture is to bring harmony to the senses and the receptors in ourselves that long to be met. The balance of acid and alkaline inherent in foods is yet another demand. If we are related to what is in front of us in the preparation stage, these aspects of unification unfold very naturally. I become sensitized to the call of a dish, the meal as a whole. I become aware of the components and how right or wrong they are for each other, be it in shape or size, complexity or flavor. It becomes an interesting interplay and exchange between the raw food ingredients and myself. A dialogue. Relationship.
When plating, what happens when we spread the meal's components out? Keep them in groups, add a gesture component (like a few thin pieces of lemon rind to the plate juxtaposed without fuss). It falls on a place of rightness in us that isn't about aesthetic or "artistry"-- it's very interesting. The life of the food starts to engage with us, inform us. It becomes a relationship. We no longer act upon it. We work WITH its life, and it works with us.
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