Kafka’s Cookbook

First episode. How it all began.

by Uwe Heitkamp

And what are your wishes for the new year that has just begun? Some of you will certainly want to quit smoking, others to give up alcohol, and yet others have quite possibly resolved to become millionaires. There are so many things we resolve to do, only to abandon them later because our desire was simply stronger than our willpower. When our expectations come up against reality, we usually begin to feel an inner restlessness, which sometimes leads to dissatisfaction. Things don’t have to go that far, because making a decision usually requires some form of inner development; it requires time, and even more patience. And then, hopefully, the result won’t be too far off. Eventually, things will start to move. Because such processes are fluid: they are not linear and tend, instead, to develop in cycles. When I started smoking, I thought it was cool. I liked the taste of cigarettes. At least, that was what I told myself. This feeling lasted for eight long years until one morning I woke up with tonsillitis, although, thankfully, it disappeared with the help of a few pills. During this phase of my illness, I naturally didn’t smoke. Once the illness was over, I soon fell back into my old habit and bought another packet of tobacco.I rolled my own cigarettes and continued smoking. The doctor who treated me was a good friend who, during one of my next bouts of tonsillitis, advised me to keep smoking, because then he could cut my tonsils out of my throat. First the tonsils, and later the cancer too. After eight years of smoking, the end came as a surprise. I stood in front of a dustbin, all alone, and stuffed the tobacco into it. That was after my fifth bout of tonsillitis, and it never came back, because I haven’t touched a cigarette since. That was 40 years ago.

And so I learned how to end something based on my own insight and experience. But this process took time, like everything in the world of decisions. I started running in the woods, running for an hour every other day at sunrise. I chose different routes to run, and, as I got older, I became more consistent: I was slower, but my running became more intense, more enduring. The transition from running ten kilometres to long-distance hiking was a seamless process. Several times a year, I would hike 300 km up and down hill. And that was good for my lungs and my overall health.

Over the years, a solitary decision slowly matured within me. I resolved to adopt a meat-free diet and never again consume dead animals. Every year, I would reach the point of starting again, but the menus in most restaurants didn’t make it easy. I also wanted to give up wine and beer and banish alcohol from all my drinks. These processes dragged on for an agonisingly long time, and my aspirations didn’t match reality. It was a cookbook that piqued my curiosity just enough for me to finally rediscover the joys of cooking, at almost 60 years of age. One of the most beautiful cookbooks I have is by the immortal Czech writer Franz Kafka, who was a vegetarian throughout his life. My publisher sent it to me for Christmas. Its subtitle is “Franz Kafka’s Vegetarian Transformation in 544 Recipes” and, for the first time, it offered me a different recipe for every day of my first meat-free year.And, what’s more, some days I cook twice – once for lunch and once for dinner – because it also includes a generous selection of recipes for salads. The book was recently published by Klett-Cotta in Stuttgart and is already in its second edition. It costs 35 euros, has 448 pages and the ISBN 978-3-608-12486-6. The hardcover edition is also available as an e-book. Title: Kafka’s Cookbook. Edited by physician Eva Gritzmann and book critic Denis Scheck. The rights to the book should soon be available in English and Portuguese through a reputable English and Portuguese publisher. It’s well worth reading, especially the short stories…