© Isabella Obrist 2022
“Les 5 Eléments chinois, comment les inviter dans nos assiettes ?”
Learn today to cook according to a 3000-year-old Chinese wisdom
Wisdom, which is both innovative and applicable to our modern and western lives.
Knowing why an eggplant cools the body and fennel warms and digests. Understanding why cabbage helps prevent serious illness and treat pain is useful in everyday life.
After a first surprise, when we discover the unknown and the “exotic” side of this wisdom, so different from ours, we realize that Man has the same needs in China, in Africa or in Europe: to integrate as well as possible in his environment to live a life full of vitality and energy. While preserving the living environment. Other lives matter too!
The Petit Ventre Heureux TCM workshops allow you to discover the nature and flavors of food according to the 5 Chinese Elements. The nature of a food-item corresponds to its thermal effect: heating or cooling the body. The flavor corresponds to the way it makes Energy circulated inside our body. The salty flavor for example guides the vital energy towards the depth of our bodies, towards the Kidneys.
Chinese thinking is universal.
If we look at human needs around the world, we realize that our physical and emotional well-being is the result of the connection we make with the world around us. We are a product of our soil. Like the vine that draws its strength from its soil and adapts to the seasons and climates.
These universal principles taught by Chinese wisdom are simple, but not simplistic. It believes that human health and well-being are based on a holistic view of things. Our bodies are intimately connected to nature. In fact, we should admit that the human being is a part of nature. Every time we breathe in, we invite it into us, every time we eat, we digest it so that it becomes one with us.
We can choose what we eat. When and how we eat it. The Five Elements cuisine follows the seasons and nature. To submit to the laws of nature is not a weakness, but a sign of good sense and wisdom. Waiting for the season to enjoy strawberries is neither backward nor synonymous with deprivation. They will not only have a red nose, but also a heart full of vitality and will thrill your taste buds. A true gift. So be patient…
The Five Elements kitchen allows us to align ourselves with the moment and the place. It nourishes body and mind with colors, flavors, textures, and aromas as its main ingredients. It offers health through pleasure. This notion is very important: before food is our first remedy, it opens a door to deep satisfaction.
We can then cook according to the Five Elements out of a taste for adventure, out of a desire to do ourselves good, out of a search for harmony and well-being.
There are times in life when health is fragile, and an imbalance requires us to pay more attention to ourselves when we need to find our way back to health.
It is during these circumstances that the Five Elements cuisine comes to us with vehemence.
Food becomes part of our body and mind. A good reason to understand, respect and love it. All food is, or should be, both a provider of life energy and a remedy.
Are we cooks or doctors in our kitchens?