I was never taught to cook. My parents are great, but their favorite room was certainly not the kitchen. And it never became mine.

This is an embarrassing thing to admit in a room full of ayurvedic yogis who buy organic produce every week from the local market and spend hours sautéing and braising and heaven-knows-what until they wind up with incredibly tasty dishes fit for vegetarian royalty. But not me. I try—don't get me wrong. I buy the veggies. I own the wok. I throw the veggies into the wok. But fit for royalty? I don't think so.
So, when I saw that the San Francisco YOGASTUDIO was doing an ayurvedic cooking course, I jumped on it.

It was a blast. The teachers are Jeremy Moran (above right), a yoga teacher and chef, and Abbie Scianamblo (below left), a cerified ayurvedic practitioner who owns an organic olive oil company. Jeremy leads the cooking lesson (we cooked three courses together) and Abbie talks about ayurveda and how certain foods can either pacify or aggravate the various doshas.

The class took place in this lovely apartment that is upstairs from the studio. It has a huge dining room, and nice-sized kitchen, where we each had our own cutting board and chopped and chatted around a long prepping station set up in the center of the room. (There's me, below, chopping a lovely seasonal nectarine.)

We started with a fruit salad, moved onto a quinoa version of kichari with avocado mousse, and finished with an artichoke heart salad. What I loved most about the class was that we actually got to prepare food, and then eat what we had prepared. Jeremy taught us some very useful knife techniques, and had us do everything from removing the hearts from the artichokes (very hard work!) to plating (arranging food decoratively before serving it).

During dinner, Abbie spoke about food sadhana and how to practice eating yogically. She says that 75 percent of ayurveda is not what you eat but when and how you eat it. I love getting more in touch with what I put into my body, so this class was great. And the good news is that this course happens several times a year, so if you missed this one, you can sign up for the next one. Anyone out there have any thoughts about food, eating, and yoga?

*****

Photos by Sarah Peet