How to Cook Your Life (2007)

I did not find his impatience with his followers to be zen at all. When Mr. Brown snapped at the people for not knowing how much salt was needed for the bread and then had the audacity to "ting" the little bell as they all dropped everything they were doing, I laughed. Imagine supposed grown adults being that afraid of someone that seems rather insane. I had to laugh. I mean, really, he cried when he wanted a sponge to clean his cutting board. I can say that I learned a very tiny amount of knowledge on a subject that I basically knew almost nothing about and I feel that I still don't. Too bad. I was willing to watch and learn with an open mind; however, I feel that I opened it and there was very little information that was worth the effort. He speaks of the pursuit of oil in the world that is used to produce, process and deliver food that each of us could make on our own. Without oil, he would not have these nice "retreats" available because someone had to build them and his cookbook would not get very far without people printing and delivering it. The film left me with a feeling that I could have spent that time doing something that was more productive...such as sleeping.

A grown man cries over tea pots. That's one of the few highlights in this rather bland movie. I was interested in more of the political aspects of the film like the woman who hadn't bought groceries in 2 years and liberated fruit off the property of ...(read more) Bush voters. Very nice.Instead of having a nut-job like Chef Ramsey hosting a show like "Hell's Kitchen", FOX should get the Zen chef. He's just as insane but a much more likable way. Unfortunately this wasn't the right medium for his insanity and we feel more embarrassed for him on camera than entertained. I also wasn't left with much more of a knowledge of zen which I was truly hoping for here.

A quirky Zen leader, a couple followers who are way to interested in what he's saying and a load of other subtly absurd details make this film hilarious if you don't want to take it serious. You can enjoy this as a primer to Buddhism but you can also laugh at it as a showcase of some nutty Americans who might be slightly mistranslating the deep history of a foreign religion. Some scenes are so out of place like all of a sudden the cameras follow people scavenging for food and talking about the connection between American wastefulness and the Iraq war...you'll find half your brain going, "Hmmmmm, interesting" and the other half going "WTF are their talking about?"

I enjoyed this film very much. Food and cooking have always made an excellent vehicle for the earthy, practical wisdom of Zen. Edward Espe Brown comes across as a very genuine teacher, and humble too--unafraid to share his own human emotions, his own work on himself. I appreciated his stories and sense of humor, as well as his gentle reminders of how profound and sacred our relationship to food really is, and how far we have lost this in the contemporary world. This is a contemplative and uplifting film with a lot of heart that made my hectic mind slow down and relax...An added bonus is some rare video footage of the great Suzuki-roshi, author of "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind".