“Stepping forward misses, stepping backward misses, taking one step misses, taking two steps misses. And so there are mistakes upon mistakes.”—Zen master Dogen
The first time I was assigned a cooking shift at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, I entered the kitchen—the domain—of Dan Welch, an old Suzuki Roshi student and vice-abbot of the monastery. I was in my early twenties, he in his sixties.
Dan is a master chef. He cooked at the San Francisco Zen Center, at Tassajara monastery, and at the celebrated vegetarian restaurant, Greens, that SFZC opened in the 1970s. Then he did stints at Chez Panisse and, with his then-wife, renowned chef Deborah Madison, at the American Academy in Rome. There’s more to his cooking resume, but you get the gist.
For my part, I was fresh out of college, where I’d done a little better than Kraft mac ‘n cheese . . . but not much.
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