Cooking is a creative endeavor – beginning with the selection of foods to prepare. Coming home from the farmer’s market with perfect vegetables, herbs, and fruits is so satisfying.
This means that my kitchen is a sacred space that although simple, it has the basics to cook all the fresh food everything we bring home: a stove, sink, pans, and cooking utensils. It has always seemed satisfactory, but today I was inspired to think more about the kitchen after touring the Museo Robert Brady in Cuernavaca.
Brady was an American artist and designer who had a home in Cuernavaca. He was a painter and world traveler who had an unerring eye and a strong appetite for collecting. After his death in 1986, he left his home and art collections to the State of Morelos.
His home is the colonial style, with many levels and gardens. They are all exquisite, but the kitchen made me stop and stay awhile.
A modest gas stove is flanked by the traditional wood-fired stove (on the right). I could imagine beans being slowly cooked in the ceramic pot. Brady selected Talavera tiles for the walls and counters and painted the walls a rich blue and cheery yellow. There are sweet little garlands decorating the central cooking area, almost like a shrine to the cook.
In the “less is more” philosophy, there is not a lot of kitchen stuff, but there is vibrant color as a background to the collections of Talavera plates and glassware.
I could imagine making large feasts in this kitchen.
Feeling grateful and inspired!
#Mexico
#artand cooking
Photos in this essay by Linda Marston-Reid, copyright 2018
Life & Art 