Good Kuchen

Blake is an artist to her bones.

I know this because she studied with me. We’d be doing something in the kitchen and suddenly she’d stop and say, “Look at the light.” I’d wonder what was up; if there was a problem. She’d walk over to the table under the skylight, pick up a leaf of red-veined chard so fresh from the ground you could see it’s life. She’d raise the leaf in her hand, positioning it between her and the light. And then with her other hand she would snap a photo. Green leaf with blood electric red light running through it’s veins.

Once she invited me to dinner, and told me she was having Lasagna with greens and walnuts and Gorgonzola béchamel. Oh, and with beet pasta and …. I thought, “Oh lord.” When I arrived I saw her assembling it out of the corner of my eye. Red pasta, a bowl of nuts, another of chopped greens. “Hippy food,” I thought. And that’s what she served.
What I tasted was heavenly, tender pasta enfolding nuts make flavorful by the gentlest toasting. The greens were so tender I wondered if she’d held them up to the light and photographed them before blanching. The pasta, greens and nuts were sauced with a béchamel flavored delicately with Gorgonzola. The effect was transporting.