With humor and vitality, Isaac Cronin's words renew our capacity to delight, to be filled with life. Flavorful recipes welcome our hearts and hands to cook and be nourished. Our presence in the kitchen makes all the difference. --Edward Espe Brown, Zen priest, author of The Tassajara Bread Book and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings The inner game of cooking--a book of essays, exercises, and recipes designed to help experienced cooks and nov-ices alike find joy and fulfillment in the experience of food preparation. Many people enjoy cooking; others dread it. This book is for people who want to learn to love it. The Mindful Cook draws on two traditions--meditation, as practiced in East-ern spirituality, and mindfulness, as outlined by Western psychologists and in books like Diane Ackerman's Deep Play--to help experienced cooks and novices alike find a sense of wonder and fulfillment in the essential human act of preparing food. Brief personal essays by food expert Isaac Cronin explore various aspects of food and cooking--history, preparation, the sense of the kitchen as place, balancing flavors, the joy of mistakes--and are followed by exercises that involve both meditation and hands-on ex-perimentation to help make the process of creating food as rewarding as the final result. Beautifully designed and including twenty-nine delicious recipes, The Mindful Cook enables us to nourish the soul, develop the mind, and eat well at the same time. From the Hardcover edition.