St. Laurence/The Chinese Kitchen God
gouache on paper 5.25" x 6"
I recently read an excellent cookbook called: The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing by Grace Young. I heard Grace Young on NPR talking about Chinese New Year and the Chinese Kitchen God, and it was so interesting I got her book to read.
I learned that the kitchen is considered the heart of the family, and that the Kitchen God is a benevolent god who watches over everyone in the family. I felt that he had a lot in common with St. Laurence, who is the patron saint of cooks and who was famous for his jolly good humor, so he can be one, the other, or both depending on your needs. I surrounded him with some of the lucky things I learned about: bamboo, moon cakes, and the wok hay, which is the breath of the wok. The Chinese writing in his halo are the words for "love", "harmony" and "family" in Chinese.
