MY MOTHER: A WOMAN WHO SPOKE WITH FOOD.

REMEMBERING MY MUM:

A WOMAN WHO SPOKE WITH FOOD.

My mum is unforgettable in many ways: her care, her joy, her laughter, her faith, her songs, her patience, her resilience etc.

In our home, the kitchen was not just a place where meals were made: it was a sacred space where my mother, the high priestess of pots and pans, held quiet conversations with food. 

While most people chopped, stirred, and served in haste, my mother approached cooking like a sacred dialogue. 

She often said, “Cooking is a dialogue with food,” and she meant every word.

To her, food was alive. 

Every tomato had a tale. 

Every garlic had a whisper. 

Every grain of rice came carrying a story from the soil. 

And she, armed with her wooden spoon was the listener.

I remember sitting in the kitchen as a child, watching her prepare meals.

She would hum softly, speaking to onions as she fried them gently, asking them to reveal their sweetness. 

She would pause before adding salt, as if asking the stew, “Is this enough, or do you need more?” 

She said food wanted to be sweet and satisfying on the table, but too many cooks ignored its voice. 

That is how tasteless meals are made: not from bad ingredients or bad recipes, but from bad listeners.

She kept saying:

“You can’t cook good food if you don’t care about what the food is saying while cooking it,” 

She believed that each ingredient had a voice, and a careful cook need to listen to that voice.

Even water, she said, needed to be respected, for it carried the memories of rivers, lakes and oceans.

And somehow, the meals she made spoke volumes too. 

Her soup could silence a whole room. 

Her chapatis brought laughter to a whole family. 

Her stews had the power to heal.

Every dish she served carried not just taste, but intention.

Her cooking still influences my cooking till today. 

Now, anytime I stand in my own kitchen, I try to hear what the food is saying. 

I slow down, I taste, I pay attention. 

I talk to my ingredients the way she did: not out loud, but with presence and care. 

I have come to understand what she always knew: food has a voice. 

The best meals are not just cooked: they are listened.

Every cook need to learn to have a hearty dialogue with food while cooking. 

If you listen well, you will cook well.

Deaconess Monicah Amani