Authors: Charlie Cascio

Esalen Cookbook (2 page)

BOOK: Esalen Cookbook

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p. cm.

ISBN 1-58685-852-1

1. Cookery. 2. Esalen Institute. I. Title.

TX714.C3 763 2006

641.5—dc22

2006005452

FOREWORD

ESALEN: THE MAGIC AND THE DREAM

Esalen.
The very word conjures magic for many thousands of students and seekers who come here each year, the hundreds of teachers and residential staff who live or spend time in this timeless spot, where the foothills of the Ventana Range fall sharply to the Pacific Ocean. Parts of these grounds were sacred to the Esselen Indians, from whom the Institute takes its name. They believed the spot was an energy confluence of all the waters—deep earth, mountain, sky, and sea. Many say that they think and feel more deeply at Esalen, that conversations on Esalen’s healing grounds, in the classrooms and the lodge, or down at the mineral baths by the swelling surf are more alive, more intense, and more whole and fresh than conversations they have in other places.

People come in search of that wholeness. From its beginnings, Esalen’s founders insisted on their commitment to reowning our whole human potential in the deepest sense—spirit and body, shadow and light, self and our shared community. To the inquiries of the mind would be added the language of the body, the struggles of the heart, the yearnings of the spirit, and the full expression of our social nature, our relational world. To each of these dimensions of our nature they would bring the light of conscious awareness, the darkness of mystery, and the energy of committed dialogue.

And more than this: true wholeness means the interplay and complex union of all these dimensions of human experience together, the full human potential for integration of being. Thus Esalen’s themes have been not just body but mind/body, not just spirit but body/spirit, the mindful heart and the heartful mind, spiritual activism through political initiatives, and all the other combinations and unities we might explore that bring us toward that wholeness.

All this goes on at Esalen, bringing a steady stream of the most stimulating students and teachers from around the world—to learn, restore, relax, expand, heal, and then take that expanded capacity out into the world again, with renewed commitment for the journey.

At the center of it all, physically and psychically, are the gardens, lavish and yet with a homey touch, hand-tended and natural, richly ornamental and yet highly productive at the same time. These gardens, together with the farm at the north end of the campus, supply a large portion of the foodstuffs that go into the amazing Esalen kitchen each day and come back out in the form of hundreds of individual meals, scores of platters, trays, tureens, and serving pans that nourish and delight us here at Esalen each and every day of the year.

How do they do it? “Teamwork,” they may say with a shrug when you ask them, and then admit that they sometimes ask themselves that same question. The entire operation is a testimony to the integration of incongruities that has always been Esalen’s hallmark: a core staff of highly dedicated and talented individuals, inspiring and energizing a diverse student crew from around the world. They create meals in a small and crowded workspace, yet with the highest standards of cleanliness and the unexpected efficiencies smallness can sometimes bring. They offer a menu that changes with the seasons and with the actual day’s harvest. At mealtime the serving stations are loaded, varied, and enticing, and always there is the nourishing array of Esalen organic breads, fresh-baked and available all day (and all night) long.

I suspect part of the answer to how they do it is sheer magic—but a magic each of us can share. At its heart is the alchemy of
shared intention and spirit
, which after all is what is taught here at Esalen, in the end. Students, interns, staff, guest workers—everybody at Esalen is a seeker in his or her own way; everybody is on a path with its own explorations, challenges, joys, distractions, processes. Our intentions are as varied as our individual psyches and journeys; and our intention and our shared journey are one.

And then out of this magic, this intoxicating mix of earth, mind, heart, spirit, and community, three times a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year (and one more on leap year), the mealtime show goes on. Each and every day some contribution comes in from the farm and gardens, to be included in the meal. Three times each day the kitchen staff blesses the meal on time, and nourishing food goes out—a staggering total of some 250,000 variously loaded plates a year, with always a veggie choice, always a vegan alternative in the kitchen, and almost always a meat or fish alternative as well.

And isn’t all that, on a smaller scale, the challenge many of us face in our own kitchens: how to render routine, pressures of time and space, and the challenge of “whatever we’ve got on hand” into the magic of nourishment, blessing, and the deep restoration of body and heart that an
intentional meal
provides to the human spirit?,

You’ll find that magic in the pages of this handsome book, in the wonderful recipes developed and adapted for home proportions by Charlie Cascio, longtime Chief Resident Magician of the Esalen Kitchen, together with his fellow magicians and crew. You’ll find it too in the stunning food photography of Joyce Oudkerk Pool and the food styling of Nani Steele. It’s also in the beautiful photos of the Esalen grounds and of the staff and students by Daniel Bianchetta. And you’ll find it in your own kitchen when you let yourself be inspired by these images, these recipes, and all the wealth of spirit and experience that go into them.

If you’ve never been to Esalen, travel here in these pages, feel a bit of the energy so many feel, and take that inspiration and intention into your own home and life. Then follow it up with a visit to us with your whole person when you can—restore your body and spirit in the courses, the baths, the lodge at mealtimes, the gardens and grounds. And again, take that inspiration and intention into your own life.

If you’ve been here before, perhaps many times, come back soon and whenever you can. In the meantime, take this book as a talisman to retrigger that special state of being, that magic, till you can be here in person again. Use it as a reminder that all of us are alchemists, all of us are potential magicians, really—in our kitchens and in our lives. All of us are on a journey, and every day we take whatever is at hand—out of the challenges and the needs and the bounty our shared earth provides—and render it into the most nourishing service we can, as creatively and gratefully as we can, for others and for ourselves. Remembering that is the greatest gift and in a way the whole point of Esalen.

Enjoy, transform, serve.

With blessings for your journey,

Gordon Wheeler

President, Esalen Institute

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I offer a most grateful thank you to all of the great people of the Esalen kitchen who worked so hard with such large volumes, to create and to master these and many more recipes during their daily routine of feeding the masses in the dining lodge.

I would like to give my appreciation to these folks who gave me their culinary support, encouragement, and physical help to make this book possible: Robin Burnside, Angela Karegeannes, Jaelitza, Denise Ladwig, Rachel Fann, John Blunt, Bill Herr, Liam McDermott, Flanagan Mackenzie, and most of all my charming wife, Marion, who supported and helped me throughout the recipe testing and writing of this book.

I would like to thank David Price for his supervision over this project.

I would like to thank Dick Price, who inspired me to create a compassionate kitchen, to believe in my fellow man and woman, and to give them a chance to go beyond the limits of their boundaries.