Rev. Danny Fisher

The trailer for Doris Dörrie’s new documentary How to Cook Your Life was just released on the Apple Trailers webpage. The film is described there in this way:

In How to Cook Your Life Dörrie enlists the help of the charismatic Zen Master Edward Espe Brown to explain the guiding principles of Zen Buddhism as they apply to the preparation of food and life itself.

For those who don’t know, Zen Master Brown is the author of the much-beloved Tassajara Bread Book, as well as Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings and others. A Zen practitioner for over forty years, he has been head resident teacher at each of the San Francisco Zen Centers: Tassajara, Green Gulch, and City Center. He is also the co-author of The Greens Cookbook, Zen: The Art of Modern Eastern Cooking, and others.

Dörrie is the director of the delightful German comedy Erleuchtung Garantiert (or, Enlightenment Guaranteed, if you prefer the English). The film tells the story of the misadventures of two German brothers on retreat at a Zen Buddhist monastery near Tokyo. (Regular readers might recall mention of it in my long-winded “Buddhism and Film” post from last year.)

My great friend Derek, who works as a baker and blogs at Fridgeir and Cook This Now, has prepared some delicious items from the Tassajara Bread Book when I’ve visited with him and his wife Jill in the past. I’m a big fan of the book and the recipes, and I’m looking forward to the film. (Derek, is it a date?)

You can watch the trailer below or at Landmark Theaters’ YouTube page for the trailer here.