As I’ve been writing this, I’ve found myself thinking the same thing over and over again.

I wonder what those people took home with them.

I thought back to each person in turn and jotted down my thoughts. Although it seemed there were as many items as there were people, there weren’t actually that many different types.

I counted them, and there were six.

The first is the ability to make one’s own decisions.

I open the fridge and decide what to have for dinner tonight. I try changing just one ingredient in the miso soup. This power lies in something as simple as that. Before asking anyone for the ‘right’ answer, I choose for myself and make up my mind. The kitchen was one of the few places in everyday life where I could do that without needing anyone’s approval.

The second is the power of imagination.

I decide on the flavour by picturing the face of the person who will eat it. I consider the texture and temperature for someone who cannot yet speak. I light the hob now, picturing the dining table an hour from now. Cooking makes me visualise things that are not right in front of me, almost every day.

The third is the ability to give things a go.

Without really knowing what to expect, I give the plastic bottle a shake. I’ll squeeze the lemon to see what happens. Rather than researching before taking action, I learn by doing. Cooking is a field where the cost of experimentation is low. That’s why people feel comfortable trying out new things here.

The fourth is the ability to bounce back from failure.

Dilute miso soup that has become too strong. Add something to a stew whose flavour isn’t quite right. Turn today’s mistake into a source of inspiration for tomorrow. Rather than erasing mistakes, use them to build upon them. For this ability to flourish, you need a place where failure doesn’t spell the end.

The fifth is the power to reach out to others.

The food I make finds its way into someone’s stomach, and I receive a response in return. Cooking gives me this experience every day—the realisation that what I have done has reached someone.

The power to make an impact is not merely about being able to create something skilfully. It is the power that comes from truly feeling that something you have made with your own hands has reached someone, and from wanting to do so again. That sense of fulfilment grows as you gain more and more experience of making an impact.

The sixth is the power to build on what has gone before.

Adapting the flavours I’ve learnt to my own kitchen. One day, I’ll pass on my own methods to someone else. Just as there are things that have been passed down—from grandmother to mother, and from mother to child—without ever becoming written recipes. Cooking is not an activity that ends once you’ve learnt it. Those who have learnt it have gone on to pass it on, even without being asked.

These six points are not a report card. Nor are they a checklist. As for the names, you needn’t worry about remembering them once you’ve finished reading. What matters are those individual moments I’ve encountered in the kitchen.

What’s more, these six qualities aren’t exclusive to cooking. Whether it’s working in the fields or playing a musical instrument, those who are meant to develop these qualities will do so regardless. There’s no guarantee that simply cooking will necessarily lead to their development.

And then, once I’d finished arranging the six of them, I realised something.

Of these six, not a single one was something I provided from outside.

I explained the procedure. But the desire to make a decision, the desire to give it a go, and the question ‘Why?’ were all already present within that person before I even began teaching them. The same goes for the drive to recover from failure and the desire to convey something to someone else.

The idea that cooking nurtures people did not mean imparting new strength from outside. Rather, it meant drawing out the strength that people already possessed and enabling them to use it time and again.

Come to think of it, perhaps what I have been doing over the past twenty years has been to create situations where perspectives shift and spaces where one’s inner strength can emerge.

When one’s perspective changes, people begin to make their own decisions, imagine, experiment, learn from their mistakes, share their ideas with others, and pass them on. Cooking nurtured each and every one of these things.

I would like to refer to these six as ‘the power of the future’.

This is because we have already entered an era where we can eat without having to cook.

Convenience takes a great deal of the burden off our shoulders. On the other hand, the opportunities to make decisions, to try new things, and to fail and pick ourselves up again are gradually diminishing from our daily lives.

If you don’t use it, you won’t develop your strength.

Decide, imagine, try, rebuild, deliver, connect. Each of these is precisely what we need in the times ahead.

But is this skill, honed in the kitchen, something that is confined solely to the kitchen? If it were to step outside those walls, how far might it reach?

TERUMI ISHIBASHI

FARM8 Co. Ltd.,

Next chapter: ‘The Future Potential Nurtured by Cooking’ – Chapter 7: Flavours That Travel Far