Cordon Noir by Penny Moon is not a cookbook. But it is absolutely about cooking.
It is about what happens before the meal is ready. About the moments when ingredients are laid out, the heat is low, the lid is on, and no one, least of all the cook, quite knows how things will turn out.
In classical cookery, a cordon noir is a boundary: a line not to be crossed, a method that must be respected, a discipline that keeps chaos at bay while something delicate is prepared. Penny Moon borrows that idea and applies it to inner life; to the slow, careful preparation required when change is underway.
This book began life not as a grand recipe but as a modest mise en place: a seven-slide storyboard, sketched and tested over years of therapeutic practice. With the help of Manus AI, those notes were gently reduced, stirred, tasted, and expanded into a finished dish: one that resists haste and rewards attention.
Cordon Noir does not tell you what to do. It does not shout instructions from the pass. Instead, it invites you into the kitchen, hands you a wooden spoon, and suggests you stay with the process a little longer than feels comfortable.
There will be moments of uncertainty. Some simmering. Occasional mess.
That, Penny suggests, is exactly the point.
This is a book for reflective practitioners, curious readers, and anyone who suspects that the most important transformations happen off-menu, at low heat, and in their own time.
Best served slowly.
No substitutions recommended.
Ingredients!
- One loosely sketched storyboard
- A lifetime of therapeutic practice
- A pinch of archetype
- Several unnamed thresholds
- Time (more than you think)
- Silence
- A willingness to sit with not knowing
Optional but useful:
Curiosity, patience, and a tolerance for ambiguity
Method!
- Begin by preparing the space.
Do not rush this step. - Lay out the ingredients, but resist the urge to measure them. Precision will not help you here.
- Apply gentle heat.
If nothing seems to be happening, you are probably doing it right. - Leave unattended. Return often.
Stir only when something inside you insists. - Taste frequently.
Expect the flavour to change depending on the day. - When the urge arises to declare it “finished,” lower the heat and wait a little longer.
Serve slowly.
Best consumed in small portions, revisited over time.
Feeds more than expected.
Cordon Noir
A reflective, gently humorous book about change, patience, and preparation.
Cordon Noir uses the language of cookery to explore what happens when something new is quietly coming into being — best approached at low heat and in your own time.
Hear all about it on our podcast here!