I figured that in honor of this, my 500th post, I would lay off pounding you with my OWN words (because obviously, I've done quite enough of THAT in the past year and a half) and instead direct you to someone's else's words. Specifically, these words in the New York Times, thoughtfully pointed out to me by RLS. She thought maybe I would enjoy reading this article about food, and cooking, and how it has changed over the years to something more akin to a spectator sport (Food Network, anyone?) than a participatory activity. She was right.
You should read it, too. If only for this quote from food-marketing expert Harry Balzer (who is, incidentally, a complete jackass in my opinion), which I was greatly amused by:
"Here’s an analogy,” Balzer said. “A hundred years ago, chicken for dinner meant going out and catching, killing, plucking and gutting a chicken. Do you know anybody who still does that? It would be considered crazy! Well, that’s exactly how cooking will seem to your grandchildren: something people used to do when they had no other choice. Get over it.”
Did that man just call me crazy? I think he did. And we should all devoutly hope that our grandchildren NEVER think that way about cooking. Because God help us all if that comes to pass.
Harry the Jackass is also firmly convinced that cooking as a skill is already lost. Who, he asks, is going to teach the next generation to cook? You know what I say to that ridiculous remark? I will. And so will thousands of others like me (and like many of you, for that matter). But I'll be damned if any of that home-cooked food will ever go to Harry. He can keep eating his Twinkies and Stouffer's frozen meals and bitching about the certain demise of the home-cooked meal. I'll be over here eating my crustless quiche and laughing all the way to the brownies for dessert.
P.S. Huh. Somehow I managed to produce quite a few words of my own in this post after all. Imagine that.
Each to their own I say... there are plenty of us to teach our children and grandchildren the basics of home cooking. Live the life you love I say !!!! :0)
ReplyDeleteI'm tryin' to teach them. But they won't all buy the damn book.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh by the way, I'm not saying that guy isn't a jackass, but he's kind of right about the chicken thing. Our grandmothers -- okay, great-grandmothers -- would have thought the same thing about us that you're thinking about our hypothetical non-cooking future generations.
Amen, sister!!!
ReplyDeleteThere will always be those who appreciate a home cooked meal. This guy is looney tunes.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you should post that particular paragraph, because it was that particular paragraph that made me think of you and send you the link! I confess that I, myself, started reading it not because of any strongly held values about cooking, but because it was tagged with teasers about the new Julia Child movie.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are learning to cook, and their best lessons are coming from (gasp) my husband. Harry needs to read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But since he doesn't cook, he probably doesn't read, either.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read the article yet, but I don't understand that. People appreciate a good home-cooked meal. There are tons of shows to teach people about how to cook for their families. I enjoy cooking my own meals. Our whole family loves getting together and eating my mom's home-cooked meals. Everyone always calls her for her recipes. It's certainly not a thing that's falling by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteI guess Harry won't be getting any of my home-canned jams or pickles, nor any of my home-grown bbq pork or homemade chocolate chip cookies.
ReplyDeleteHis loss, I say.
So I finally finished the article. (Should have realized it was Pollan before I saw the author bio at the end. Duh.)
ReplyDeleteI still think the guy doesn't seem like an ass. His job is to track what people actually do in real life, not what we wish people did. And what people actually do is nuke up the frozen meal substitute because they "don't have time to cook", then spend an hour watching a show about other people cooking.
Sure it's stupid. Don't blame the messenger. He has met the enemy, and it is us.
Drew: All I can say is that guy is not studying what I'm doing, or what my friends are doing, or what my family does, or what a whole lot of people I know in real life and online do. I suspect his research is biased.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still say he's a jackass.
I'd like that guy to dig a little deeper with his (as Pollan noted) less than adequate research tools to uncover those of us who have started cooking MORE than our mothers did.
ReplyDeleteNow, my mom made a mean lasagna and we always had a homemade dinner with a meat, starch and veg - but I don't think I ever saw her bust out a recipe on a weeknight and make something that took a wide variety of ingredients or techniques to bring into the world.
Whereas, I do that on a regular basis.
A chicken from coop to plate? No. But ratatouille from garden to sidedish? Regularly.
Congratulations on your 500th post! I'm in awe.
ReplyDeleteThis was an excellent article and speaks to why I have such a burning passion for cooking from scratch at home. I think Harry provides research that his clients want to hear. I'm sure Kraft doesn't care about the passionate existence of home cooks who take pride in making things from scratch. We're simply not their target market. There are, sadly, many people out there however who strongly fit the profile put forth by Harry and Michael Polan. If home cooking were a religion, I for one want to do everything I can to convert those people and share the joy, health benefits, and improved quality of life that comes with home cooking.
I actually sat down to write this post but decided to read your blog and a few others first. Thanks for saving me the trouble :-)
ReplyDeleteI read this article Sunday morning in a hotel room in Kansas and was infuriated. But since none of my traveling companions cook much, I had nobody to rail with. Tonight, Mr. Mom cooked a wonderful dinner "from scratch" and so I railed to him. And he railed back.
God help us all if cooking really goes the way of the dial telephone.