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Yewande Komolafe on Disability, Cooking and the Restorative Power of a Good Meal

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 (Marko Jan/Getty Images)

Airdate: Tuesday, February 3 at 10 AM

New York Times cooking writer and columnist Yewande Komolafe has long loved the solitary, meditative act of crafting intricate meals and comfort foods in the kitchen. But after multiple amputations profoundly altered her body, Komolafe had to learn to cook in a new way: with adaptive tools, learning “how to whisk a bowl of cream to milky soft peaks with prosthetic hands,” and with other chefs’ assistance. That collaboration helped Komolafe better understand the curative effects of a good meal, both “physiologically and psychologically.” We talk with Komolafe about the restorative powers of cooking a hot dish of fried calamari or shrimp scampi and her journey of self-rediscovery. Her new article for the Times is “How Losing My Limbs Turned Me Into a Different Kind of Cook.”

Guests:

Yewande Komolafe, cooking writer and columnist, The New York Times

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