Why Not Order Up a Side of Self-Esteem With That Salmon?
Welcome to Therapeutic Bites and the world of Cooking Therapy
There’s a reason people don’t gather in the laundry room when life falls apart.
They gather in kitchens.
They stand by the stove while talking about a diagnosis.
They sit at the table after funerals.
They pass recipes down like family heirlooms.
They stir gravy while replaying conversations in their heads.
They knead dough while trying to hold themselves together.
Food is never just food.
Over the years, both personally and professionally, I began noticing that some of the most revealing, emotional, empowering, and connective moments in people’s lives happened while cooking. Not because cooking magically solves our problems, but because the kitchen quietly mirrors so much of what it means to be human.
When we cook, we improvise.
We recover from mistakes.
We create.
We gather.
We regain a sense of control when other parts of life feel uncertain.
That realization eventually led me to develop what became known as Cooking Therapy.
As I wrote in my book Cooking as Therapy, “No matter how bad your day, your relationship, or your health, you can achieve success every time you read a recipe, haul out the ingredients, and do the job.”
That idea may sound simple, but it’s actually profound.
Sometimes emotional healing doesn’t begin with a breakthrough.
Sometimes it begins by peeling a cucumber. (Every girl needs a cucumber in her house, but that’s a story for another day and it’s not what you may think.)
Sometimes it begins by chopping onions, stirring soup, baking cookies for someone you love, or realizing that melting butter on warm toast is a pretty good metaphor for softening words, judgment, or expectations.
Through Therapeutic Bites, I wanted to create a warm and thoughtful space where we could explore those moments together.
Here, you’ll find Cooking Therapy metaphors, thoughtful conversations, and gentle prompts for reflection - along with humor, stories and emotional insight drawn from everyday life.
There will also be weekly Kitchen Table Chats where we can explore thoughtful questions together - the kinds of conversations that often start with food but end somewhere much deeper.
Whether you’ve followed my work for years or have only just discovered it, I’m truly grateful you’re here.
My hope is that when these posts arrive in your inbox, they feel a little like pulling up a chair at the kitchen table for a thoughtful conversation with a trusted friend.
And perhaps, along the way, you’ll discover that maybe a little self-esteem really can be served alongside the salmon.
Welcome to Therapeutic Bites.
I’m so glad you’re here.