Cooking in Advance

Quick cooking has become so implanted in people’s minds as the way to eat well without having a nervous breakdown that everyone ignores the real way to make life easier for yourself: cooking in advance. Knocking up a meal in fifteen minutes is good for everyday cooking, when there’s just one or two of you, or if you’re one of those people who feels uncomfortable with too much planning. But when you’re having people to dinner, life is made so much simpler if you don’t have to do everything at the last minute. If you feel flustered at the very idea of cooking, indeed hate it, doing it in advance takes away some of the stress: if you enjoy it, you’ll enjoy it more if you don’t put yourself under pressure; that’s for the professionals, who thrive on it. I love the feeling of pottering about the kitchen, cooking slowly, stirring and chopping and getting everything done when I’m feeling well-disposed and not utterly exhausted. When I cook with too much of an audience I immediately worry about what’ll happen if something goes wrong, and then, of course, something does.