After I broke my neck, I began thinking more about The Kitchen: How can we come up with some way to make real food more affordable? Food that's locally-grown, if possible, fundamentally nourishing to the body, nourishing to the planet.
What a marvelous resource soup is for the thrifty cook - it solves the ham-bone and lamb-bone problems, the everlasting Thanksgiving turkey, the extra vegetables.
We can have Americans eating affordably and eating in a way that's sustainable.
When I was studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse, I would overdraft my bank account and not have enough money to buy groceries. But I also discovered how to cook with very limited resources.
Good cooking is good cooking, regardless of the price.
Sometimes we used to eat once a day... chicken backs. You could buy four chicken backs for a quarter.
One thing that improved my cooking skills was being a poor student in California... If you don't have much money, you have to learn to cook.
The things I cook and eat on a regular basis are really inexpensive.
When you don't have much money, cooking can be incredibly reassuring. You feel like you're doing meaningful work.
Nobody has money right now. And eating is very important, but it doesn't need to be expensive. And to make - it doesn't need to be fancy, as long as it's fresh and simple. The simpler it is, the more fancy it actually comes out tasting.
To eat well, you either have to invest money or time. If you can put in some time, the raw ingredients are not that expensive. You can eat extremely well on a budget.
