A home cook participating in Steemit cooking contests

Now that I am on maternity leave, I am cutting back on the amount of time I spend in the kitchen. This also means that I no longer participate in any Steemit cooking contests. Seriously, I miss it. In particular, I miss the process of brainstorming ideas as I love to challenge myself and to take any opportunity to improve my cooking skills.

I got asked a lot on Steemit Sandwich Contest whether I am a professional. It always makes me laugh because I am definitely not a professional. To me, a professional is a person who has formal training that prepares them to cook at professional restaurant level. If a professional cooks a chicken well once, they then have to cook it well a thousand times and more, for every person who orders it. As a home cook, however, there is no expectation that I cook well a thousand times.

I am an amateur home cook who learned how to cook through trial and error. Whenever I am in the kitchen, I do pour my heart and soul. Perhaps, people mistaken my passion for food as being a professional.

As a matter of fact, I grew up having nanny cooking for me and I didn't even know how to hold a knife. I started cooking for myself when I was an international student with no nanny to take care of me. I learned everything about cooking on my own, the hard way - and it was through trial and error. I did have many failed attempts, burned a few frying pans and had upset stomach many many times (ha).

However, during the process, I fall in love with the idea of making food for myself as it feels extremely satisfying when my food actually tastes good! It is indeed the feeling of satisfaction that I am going after.

After awhile, cooking becomes my favourite hobby! Now that I am a wife and about to become a mother, it is very important that my home cooking satisfies my family. Seriously, home cooking and restaurant cooking are completely different crafts, with different goals and requirements. I much prefer to be a home cook!

My ultimate intention to participate in cooking contests is for the pure love of cooking, learning, improving, documenting and having fun.

Recently, I read a comment on a contest asking whether we need to separate the contest and have one for the amateur and one for the professional due to different level of entries.

First of all, it is a free world and we are free to enter any contests we like.

Second of all, I find it disheartening, disappointing and demoralizing to hear that a contest has to split into two to accommodate different levels when the original idea of the contest was for EVERYONE, at different levels, to come together and to form a community. That would be a really sad day for me if it comes to that (-_-)

I understand and respect we all have different intentions - some want to have fun, while some want to earn Steem currency $$$$ by having a chance to win. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that. We are allowed to have different intentions.

If the intention of the contest is simply to have a competition to allow people to earn $$$$$$$, then perhaps, there is a need to have different contests, for different levels.

However, if the original intention remains, i.e. to have fun and to build an inclusive community that allows EVERYONE to have fun, to interact, to learn from each other. Then, I am in because it means a lot more to me, whether I win or lose is not a factor at all.

At the end of the day, it's all about matching intention. If your intention does not fit into the intention of the contest, then it won't be a good fit and you won't be happy participating. However, if your intention fits in with the intention of the contest, then you would be very happy participating.

In life, we all need to have purpose and meaning, we should only participate in activities that mean something to us and that we love. Otherwise, we won't be happy!

Now back to being a home cook - I figure we have to eat to live, so why not make this a fun journey by using creativity and manual labor to make the experience more pleasurable. Like Nigella Lawson says - home cooking is comforting and creative and sustains us, and being a home cook is something to be proud of and I loved to be called a home cook.