Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life.
Georges Blanc
When you look at this image and this quote, they both provide the same advice. Whatever you are doing in life, bring it! Bring enthusiasm, bring your soul, and bring your passion to the dish or to whatever you do. A recipe is nothing more than a recipe. It is what you bring to it, how you prepare, and the love you infuse into it that brings it to life.
One can say the same about one’s faith tradition. A tradition is nothing more than a tradition. It is us who brings the meaning into it that makes it special. A friend of mine once asked me for my collard greens recipe as she said they were some of the best greens she had ever eaten. Yet when she made them for their family, nobody liked them. She thought I had given her the wrong recipe or held something back. I told her the one thing I bring to the dish, which was not on the recipe card, is my love for those I am serving. It is us and what we bring to the ingredients that make the difference.
I remember, about a year ago, watching an episode of America’s Best Home Cook and the mandatory ingredient was chicken breasts. One contestant was complaining about how much she hated chicken breasts. As I watched the show, I thought to myself, she is going home. When you bring negative energy to a dish that is what people taste. It is true of every aspect of our life. If you wake up thinking you are going to have a horrible day, then you are because you have already decided that is what your day is going to be like.
When we decide that whatever we do, we are going to bring enthusiasm to it, and then our life will be filled with that enthusiasm. We will elevate the taste of our food, our faith, and our lives. Life will not bring enthusiasm to you; you have to bring your enthusiasm to your life.