The Skinny Gourmet in Love

I am blessed with a very kitchen savvy husband. That's us, leaving the church on our wedding day amid a flurry of bird-safe sugar-based confetti that turned to sugary frosting on contact with skin. But back when we first met, on our third date, he offered to cook me dinner. He expertly prepared pan seared strip steak with rosemary mashed potatoes and a balsamic reduction sauce. For dessert bananas foster. I was in love.

Unfortunately I was deeply in love with a man who was living in an apartment with a 'galley' kitchen. For those unfamiliar, a galley kitchen has extremely limited counter and floor space. As far as I can tell, it is urban cooking modeled after the smallest kitchen available on the smallest dingy in the ocean. Needless to say, not the glorious starting spot for food love to flourish.

There was just enough room for us to stand back to back and work, provided that we both only wanted to use our right arms. Move too much and you were liable to bump, perhaps upsetting a delicate vegetable slicing ritual in progress.

Our mutual love of food and cooking was creating tension. Not only did we not have enough space to work, but we brought different philosophies into the kitchen. I have always been a bit of a free spirit in the kitchen. Like my great grandmother, who never used recipes, I am prone to innovation and experimentation. I cook often by feel. My skills were focused on the taste, but I was comparably unexperienced in the finer methods of cooking itself (like the pan searing of the flank steak, above). My husband, by contrast, is a consummate artist who knew a great deal about perfect skill in execution and preparation, but was not as inclined to on-the-fly seasoning and menu adaptations.

Ultimately we have agreed to a friendly separation of power that allows each of us to pursue our own tastes and interests, which allows for better creative cross-fertilization in the kitchen. We now rotate the task of cooking. On my weeks, I prepare the menu, go grocery shopping to stock the kitchen, and cook the food. When I am in charge, he is my sous chef. Then the following week he is in charge.