“Everyone tells me I have good nafas and my cooking is special”. Al nafas: The Key to a Cook’s ConfidenceĪl nafas is always the answer when we ask someone about what encouraged them to cook more. It’s what makes you crave a dish cooked by that specific person and no one else. It’s what will make you link a dish to a person. Although everything looked so messy, random and not at all photogenic, it continued to taste so good time and time again.Īl nafas in cooking is not only about tasty food, it’s that extra bonus you get while eating that builds a connection between you, the food you’re eating and the cook. She was illiterate, meaning that she was never able to read nor write a recipe so her only support in the kitchen was her good taste and nafas. Until today we call her the queen of the kitchen. She raised my mum along with my 10 aunts and uncles and she had to cook for them every single day. My teta (grandma), married at the age of 14 and had to learn how to cook by herself from scratch in a time where she didn’t have a phone, internet or Cookpad. It’s like listening to two covers of the same song, one will go to the ears and the other will go straight to the heart and soul. If one of them has a good nafas, you will feel it while tasting their food. You can give two cooks the same ingredients in the same quantities and ask them to prepare the same dish following the same recipe step by step. It’s a person’s very own technique in cooking and their special touch that they put into the meal they prepare. It’s when their heart and soul are involved in the process of cooking, while cutting onions, adding salt, mixing everything together and presenting it to the ones they love and care about. If their food is plain, we say they don’t have nafas in cooking at all!Īl nafas in cooking is, in other words, the positive energy, love, passion and care that a person would put into their cooking. We say that a person has good nafas in cooking, meaning that whatever they cook, even if it is as simple as a fried egg with olive oil, salt and pepper, will taste differently when they cook it. In MENA, particularly amongst older generations in remote villages, a good cook is judged by their nafas in cooking.
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