jagadānanda
a guide for simple, environmentally-friendly and nourishing food
Most of us know, somewhere in the body, that what we eat matters. Not just for how we feel, but for the world we are part of. The difficulty is rarely abstract. We understand the principle well enough. What’s harder is finding a way to act on it simply, in a real kitchen, with real life happening around you.
This guide is my answer to that. Over more than ten years of cooking, learning and experimenting with plant-based whole foods, with Ayurvedic principles, with the ecology of what grows where and why, I distilled what I know into something practical, grounded and alive. A way of approaching food that, once it takes root in you, means you won’t need recipe books anymore.
It covers three things that most food books treat separately: the ecology of food and its relationship to planetary health; nutrition and how the body heals and nourishes itself; and the practice of cooking intuitively, composing meals from fresh seasonal ingredients without rigid planning or calorie counting. These three threads aren’t separate. They’re the same thread, running through everything we eat and everything we are.
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What’s in the guide
Ecology and energy
Food comes from the earth. This first section makes that relationship felt, rather than merely stated. We look at how nutrient cycles, soil health and mycelium fungal networks connect directly to the food that ends up on your plate, and to the health you experience in your body. We look at carbon emissions, freshwater use and land, and how daily food choices either support or diminish the living systems we depend on.
There’s also a chapter on prana, the concept from Ayurveda that describes the life-force present in living beings and living foods. A freshly dug carrot and a frozen one are not nutritionally equivalent. This section explains why, and what it means for how you shop and what you choose to put in your body.
Health and nutrition
The body is far more intelligent than most dietary advice gives it credit for. This section looks at how the microbiome shapes immunity, mood and mental health; at how whole foods provide the specific micronutrients the body needs to repair DNA, produce neurotransmitters and regulate hormones; and at the accumulated wisdom of traditional medicine systems, from Ayurveda to traditional Chinese medicine, that have understood the relationship between food and healing for thousands of years.
The chapter on intuition and eating through feeling is, for many readers, the one that lands deepest. It offers a way of knowing what your body needs at any given time, without tracking, calculating or following a plan. The body has its own intelligence on this. The work is learning to listen to it.
Ingredients, meals and cooking
The practical part of the guide. What to keep in your cupboards. Why freshness creates flavour, and why a few good ingredients prepared simply will always outperform something complicated. How to compose a meal around a grain, a protein and seasonal vegetables. How to balance the five flavour profiles across a plate. Which cooking methods preserve nutrients and which diminish them. And a framework for combining ingredients in a way that gradually becomes instinctive, so that each meal you make is a little more your own.
The guide closes with ten principles of good food. A short list that holds everything in the book, and something you can return to any time you need to find your way back to the centre of things.
A way of cooking, not a collection of recipes
“You cannot imitate what I do. Each and every technique is a unique, once-and-for-all experience. Rather than trying to copy what I do, listen to what I say. That is where the essence of the technique lies. Someday, you will understand.” — Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace
What I wish to transmit through this guide is an approach, a methodology, some principles for cooking and eating well. Experiential wisdom, the kind you carry in your hands and your senses rather than on a shelf. Through presence, practice and the guidance in these pages, you will gradually discover a relationship with food that becomes part of how you live. You’ll understand what makes food good, and you’ll be able to create it yourself, from whatever is available, in any season.
Thank you for making the choice to explore this. I hope it’s illuminating and useful, and that it opens up many questions for you to keep following.
With much love, Jack
This guide is available in PDF format. You will receive a download link once you’ve completed your purchase.
What people are saying…
I was already vegan before I met Jack, but I was about to give up because of iron deficiencies and struggling to ‘translate’ French recipes into ‘meat-free’. Tasting Jack’s food immediately reconciled me with the pleasure of eating – it was simple and delicious! The secret: a completely different way of thinking about cooking – starting not from recipes, but from the flavours of fruit and vegetables to compose your meals. Watching Jack cook for a year drastically changed my relationship with food (yes, yes, I was conscientiously taking notes in a notebook XD). I realised that food was the first medicine I gave my body to heal it. The intuitive approach to food helps me to listen to my physiological needs – I get ill less and heal faster by putting the right nutrients on my plate. I’m very grateful to have developed this new connection with what I eat, and after a few months of experimentation, I now cook vegan every day with ease. It gives me great pleasure to cook and share my meals with friends, who are always amazed at the quality of taste that can be achieved by honouring fruit and vegetables to the full!
Ebène, France
Jack has a great knowledge of ingredients and how to combine flavours. He certainly cooks incredible, healthy, appetising and tasty meals. A meal cooked by Jack is always delicious and we all enjoy it when he cooks! I wholeheartedly support him in sharing his cooking skills and encourage you to learn from him!
Paul, New Zealand
I’ve noticed a profound change in the way I cook, the way I imagine my recipes, the way I eat. The ingredients take on a different flavour, everything blends together, everything harmonises. I chat to the vegetables. They tell me which ones I like best, how they like to be eaten, how they like to be cut. In short, they guide me. What a delight!
Carol, France
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Also available in print
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Jagadānanda
Jagat is the world, ananda is bliss.
The true nature of this world is bliss – divine joy and peace. The free activity of each individual being is the enjoyment of the world.
The bindu symbolises the supreme point of consciousness from which all creation emanates and returns. The spiraling waves are spanda, the vibrant and alive pulsation of consciousness from this one centre.
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