Lloyd Den Boer

According to ten-year-old me , no one could cook like my favourite aunt . When Aunt Ella invited our family for dinner , the menu featured whatever my uncle had hunted recently — usually ducks , sometimes pheasants , and , one memorable time , a goose . Aunt Ella served birds with meat so juicy that even a finicky eater like me asked for seconds . Her potatoes , whipped until they were airy , had savoury gravy to top them . Pungent ice pickles and dark red beets , preserved a season earlier and plated side-by-side , added colour to the table and put a crinkle in our noses . I don ’ t remember the vegetables — after all , vegetables are seldom memorable when you are ten — but I do remember the stuffing . According to me , no one made stuffing like Aunt Ella .

Truth be told , however , the tastes on Aunt Ella ’ s table were very like the tastes of special meals cooked at home . If Aunt Ella had a “ secret sauce ” that made her wonderful food extraordinary , it must have been the hospitality that she and Uncle Ed extended to their guests . From the moment when a warm welcome greeted us at the door , to the moment when a fond farewell followed us out a few hours later , Aunt Ella bubbled with merriment while Uncle Ed looked on with a genial smile . Conversation flowed eagerly . From time to time , my mom would join her sister in gales of laughter , buttressed by my dad ’ s booming voice . For a few magical hours my parents carried their worries more lightly , and we children luxuriated in the fun erupting around us . Aunt Ella and Uncle Ed knew how to use a dinner invitation to create a warm and joyful space for us , and once within it , our family seemed to become a brighter , better version of itself .

Wonderful meals appear in many stories . Sometimes — as in a Shakespearean comedy — they tie plot threads together , bringing the action to a satisfying close . Other times , as in “ Babette ’ s Feast ,” a short story by Isak Dinesen , meals transform characters . The climax of Dinesen ’ s story is a lavish dinner , worthy of Paris , but held in an improbable place — an isolated fishing village in northern Norway during the 1870s . The guests are a

20 | arta . net LET ’ S GET COOKING