Jon Sandifer, author of “Zen and the Art of Cooking” (Sourcebooks, 2001), writes that choosing a cooking style and ingredients are central to Zen cookery. Sandifer believes that because the essence of Zen cooking is to provide balance, it can be accomplished through applying the Chinese five-element theory.
In this theory, water, wood, fire, earth and metal each has a corresponding season, time of day, shape, emotion, taste and color that should be considered when preparing and presenting food.
This ancient principle can be applied when considering the flavorings, sauces or garnishes to build and complement a meal, Sandifer writes.
For instance, he associates five tastes with the elements: water and salty; wood and sour, fire and bitter, earth and sweet, and metal and spicy/pungent. Most fish and seafood, associated with the water element, has a salty taste that can best be complemented by earth elements such as rice or yellow, green or orange vegetables.
An approach that involves balancing seasonal ingredients for nutritious, satisfying vegetarian fare can be found in “Three Bowl Cookbook, The Secrets of Enlightened Cooking from the Zen Mountain Center” (Tuttle, 2000), by David Scott and Tom Pappas.
This book, which adapts the approach of Japanese Zen cooks, balances each meal among five cooking methods (boiling, grilling, frying, steaming and serving raw food) with seasonal ingredients that match five flavors (soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, salt and spices) and five colors (green, yellow, red, white and black/purple).
For example, in the spring, you might serve raw seasonal greens in a savory vinaigrette; in the fall, a hearty paella of warm red, gold and green vegetables would be seasoned with saffron.
