Cooking has really changed in our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our parents and grandparents. It used to be something that wasn't really thought about very much. Our grandparents mostly just prepared something for dinner that was based on what they had eaten as children, usually culturally influenced "standard" dishes. Since the 1960s, what it meant to cook has changed dramatically. At times it had been such a chore and women felt that they had to bear the responsibility of all of the shopping and cooking. This burden, in a time when woman were also working, led to the idea that the quicker and the easier the meal the better.
The dawn of the prepared foods.
Cooking for pleasure spurred a whole bunch of cooking trends that focused on very complicated recipes and very exotic ingredients. Recipes that called for very modern cooking techniques and lots of steps.
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[For a great history of American cooking and the evolution of American cuisine and ingredients, I recommend reading The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution. ]
With prepared food (either prepackaged or restaurant prepared food) so accessible, many of us have stopped cooking. We've decided to prioritize other things in our life, whether it be working or spending time with family or taking our pets for pedicures. Many of us have chosen to think of buying and preparing food as a necessary chore that we would avoid if we could. Idealizing Jetson's style meals.
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| Happy Jetsons |
But when you give up cooking you give up much more. You give up control over your health. You give up cultural connections to the traditional foods our parents and grandparents were taught. You give up your connection to the whole part of our society that produces food; all of the farmers, ranchers, fisherman, butchers etc. You give up some of your connection to nature, your understanding of seasonality, regionalism and weather and climate.
To get this back.....start cooking again.
Step 1: Find your kitchen.
The first step in starting to cook again, in enjoying to cook again, and to learn more about what we buy and eat requires that we all find our kitchens again.
We all have one.... whether you are storing shoe boxes in your oven or have countertops covered with expensive appliances, in order to start cooking and rediscover real food, you are going to have to at least tolerate being in your kitchen.
I'm sure that many of us feel a bit of anxiety when we walk into our kitchen. It always needs to be cleaned. What are you going to cook? What do you need to buy? Is there anything in there that you feel like eating? There is a lot of work and decision-making associated with our kitchens, which, not surprisingly, makes us want to get in and get out quickly or avoid it altogether and call for take-out.
Cooking can be enjoyable and even zen-like. Preparing a dinner from scratch can also feel like a great accomplishment. I also think that food that I've prepared myself seems to taste better or is at least more interesting.
So remove the fire hazards from your stove, clear yourself a spot on the counter and get ready to rediscover cooking.
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