Feel the Scent: Tara Thomas on Nature, Cooking, and the Calm of Forest Lungs
Tara Thomas is a Brooklyn based plant-based chef. She played a key role in our ‘Feel the Scent’ Fragrance campaign, exploring the themes of cooking, nature and the power of scent. She first started cooking as a creative outlet before she fell in love with the simplicity and beauty of plant based food and how good it made her feel. She is inspired by farm to table eating, using her senses with cooking (touch, taste, smell) and eating with the seasons.
How and why did you fall in love with cooking?
I fell in love with cooking at a young age. I was always a very hungry and particular child. That curiosity and passion for eating became a passion to create things that I loved with my own hands. So I could feed myself and people I loved.
How do you use cooking as a way to calm the mind and de-stress?
Cooking can be a relaxing and meditative experience. For me it is very meditative, especially when I'm working with my intuition and local and seasonal ingredients. Just going to the market, coming home and creating on a whim.
How would you describe your relationship with your body and health?
I would describe my relationship with my body as a positive relationship. I feel like I have a good understanding of how I'm feeling and where it's coming from. I think health is really dependent on your emotional feelings.
What’s your first memory of scent?
My most nostalgic memory of scent is as a child I was always in the garden and the fragrance of the green elements and the flowers and the soil is living in my memories.
How does nature inspire your cooking?
I would describe nature as a system of chaos and I would say that my cooking is very based on intuition and working with chaos and creating abundance.
How does scent make you feel?
Scent makes me feel connected and amplified.
How would you describe the scent of Forest Lungs?
Forest Lungs feels like being immersed into a forest and being able to take a deep breath and become present.
Why is reducing stress and soothing the mind important for your practice?
It's important to find presense when I am in the kitchen and time is ticking and there's a lot to do. But all I can ever do is actually just be present. I can't live in the future or live in the past, I have to stay focused and that's what I do.
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