One of the biggest differences between my life in Canada and my life in Portugal is that now I cook almost every day, and on many a Saturday or Sunday we eat at my in-laws’ (what I jokingly refer to as Mother-in-Law Restaurante). After many years of living solo, eating outside of the home the majority of the time, and living far away from family where I could just drop in or be invited for meals, I lost a lot of interest in home cooking. I also ate out far too often, at the detriment of health and wallet. The closest person I had to family and eating homestyle cooking was at my friend Helma‘s place in Pennsylvania — a six-hour drive from Toronto. Not ideal, but those were my circumstances.
A few months ago, a friend and I were talking about restaurants.
“I like eating out,” I said. “I’ve had some fantastic meals, but they’re easily forgotten. What I do remember, however, is when someone cooks for me.”
There’s something very personal about home cooking, and that’s why it sticks in my head. It’s a labour of love. Everyone expects restaurant meals to be served up quickly, and we accept that commercial kitchens take all manner of shortcuts to get plates out on the tables in short order. But home cooking takes time, and in Portugal many of the traditional dishes take a LOT of time. But no matter what, and no matter whether my camera is around or not, my mother-in-law takes great care in the presentation of her food. Everything is arranged carefully, just like in a restaurant. It’s taken a while for her to get used to me photographing the food, but now I don’t think she even notices it anymore. I only photograph a fraction of the food she makes for us, but her food styling is consistent.
And speaking of food, my third Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up and I’ve decided it’s time to host it in Portugal. Which means there will be a lot of cooking and baking going on, food that I’ve all but forgotten but will make an appearance sometime between Canadian and American Thanksgiving. For a start, there will be a whole turkey! I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about turkey… oh wait, yes I do!
September 19, 2015
Album: Portugal [Summer 2015]
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