In my household, the men cook. This is how it has been in my paternal
family for generations. Not only is a household duty for the men in our
family, but it has become a hobby and a passion for some of us.
Throughout
my life, i have known my father's greatest creative outlet to be
cooking. Although he is an artist, he makes money off of commissions and
has little time for free composition. Cooking is an art that doesn't
require too much time and has allowed my father to experiment with new
ideas or concepts. He will always try new recipes and play around with
new ways of cooking old ones.
The only other chefs alive in my
paternal family are my father, my grandfather Sune and my uncle Jens
(yes he is also named Jens). My grandfather and uncle are both also
artists. My Grandfather worked with artistic carpentry all his life and
my uncle is a painting and photography professor. When not in a kitchen,
these men might be found quarrelling and tearing open old wounds from
childhood in vicious arguements. When preparing a dish together,
however, all ill will is forgotten. Cooking is therapeutic for the men
of the Salander family. The three of them work cooperatively and move
around the kitchen like a team of professional dancers who seem
incredibly focused on the task at hand despite the jokes, old stories
and general warm-heartedness that accompany these sessions.
My
grandfather displays his patriarchy at the stove as he lectures my
father and uncle on their cookery like a teacher to a pair of
schoolboys. The two middle aged men listen to their father, taking
mental notes, then right their mistakes and continue their work. This
knowledge allows him to restore his fatherly role and provide wisdom to
men who are already well into life. The two brothers listen to him
without protest and follow his instructions carefully. "Sune is the Master" says uncle Jens.
I, being the third generation of cook, am an amateur. I still have much to learn from the Swedish chefs. That is not to say I am particularly unskilled, just unpractised. I thoroughly enjoy cooking, especially alongside my Grandfather when visiting him. My poor Swedish and his poor English create a barrier between the two of us that is seemingly broken when I am helping him prepare Schnitzel or Cordon Bleu. He'll display his inherit silly nature, a mirror image of my father's, by interrupting my dicing of vegetables with a Frisbee toss of a flat-bread circle. I have learned more about my grandfather and what I hold in common with him from the fun we've had in the kitchen together than the broken conversations we've had. I've learned that my Grandfather is a dedicated and focused man who is also a charismatic goof and exhibitionist almost to a fault. Sune is truly the master of the kitchen.
Past the
threshold of this room, Sune loses his aura of authority and we are once
again reminded of his feebleness and growing age. In the kitchen he is
king and unlike his eyesight and sense of balance, his prestige as a
chef can never fade.
Sune is 92 and is currently in the hospital
in Gavle , Sweden as we speak and is fading fast. His health has been
deteriorating at an increased rate in the last month or two. My father
believes he will pass away before our annual visit in August. Even if
this is not so, I don't think he will be able to fill the role he had
because his vertigo, frailty and loss of eyesight will live him
practically bedridden. My grandfather's connection to his sons through
food and the art of
cooking are the adhesives that hold my paternal family together. I
don't know what the absence of this will mean for my father or his
relationship with his brother.
For me, this is truly devastating because although my grandfather and I have shared some truly intimate moments the language barrier still separates the two of us. I have not heard his fantastic tales nor recounted old memories with him. It is painful to listen to him speak so eloquently and watch the rest of my family be completely enthralled in his oratory when I can only understand a few phrases. Of course, my father retells them to me in English but I am reminded "they're just not the same, I can't do it like Sune can" or "its better in Swedish" I feel guilty and left out of a grand experience. But I am reminded that any time I wanted to view my grandfather, the glue of my paternal family, In his fully glory all I need do is go to the kitchen and watch him work.
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