222 replies to this topic

[canucklehead]

Check out the article here: Women Can't Cook
Good ole' Gordo - making new friends wherever he goes. Actually - I think what he is commenting on is the decline in home cooking in general. What I don't understand is why women get the pointy end of the stick in terms of blame.

However - I am not sure what the break down is women vs men on egullet - but it seems to me that there are alot of people here that care about home cooking and take steps to feed their families and themselves well.

Edited by canucklehead, 24 October 2005 - 03:56 PM.

[peppyre]

I have to agree with what he says in the article. If I look at the women that I know, excluding fellow egullet members, most of them don't know how to cook, or flat out refuse to cook. I was an anomally amongst my friends and when I had everyone over for dinner, they were always amazed that I knew how to cook well. Without using packages, or take-out.

There are more young women working in high powered/high stress jobs and they just can't be bothered with cooking. Why cook when you can get something frozen or already made.

[shelora]

I am amazed he is only picking on young women. From that perspective, he is in deep trouble.

I think in general, people do not know how to cook. Across the board, old, young, middle-aged, male and female. Convenience foods eaten alone or on the run, its the scourge of society.
Take an informal survey next time you're in the line up at the grocery store of what folks are buying. Very enlightning. It always brings me back from my fantasy world of everything regional, seasonal, gourmet, made-from-scratch, organic, cooking all day for two people mindset.

And what are the statistics of the Food Network again? The majority don't cook, they watch.
And furthermore, many youngs chefs I know, male and female, maintain a regular diet of McDonald's, or other fast food junk on their days off.

The article also has Ramsey exclaiming that women were more apt at mixing a cocktail than cooking.
Is that a bad thing?

Edited by shelora, 24 October 2005 - 04:21 PM.

[Behemoth]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

[shelora]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

Ten points!

[Megan Blocker]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

Ten points!

More like FIFTY points!!!!!

[Andy Lynes]

The story is in no way designed to drum up publicity for this. Ramsay's just not like that.

[Carrot Top]

What Shelora said.

And the "F" word right back at him with a "U" attached to it, please.

As a matter of fact, add a A and an H to that, too.

[Andy Lynes]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

...and we're all deeply impressed by mom's apple pie over here of course. Run me through the entire canon of American home cooking not derived from your British ancestors would you, I've got 30 seconds to spare.

[Behemoth]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

...and we're all deeply impressed by mom's apple pie over here of course. Run me through the entire canon of American home cooking not derived from your British ancestors would you, I've got 30 seconds to spare.

Lighten up andy it was a joke. Anyway, I'm not exactly apple pie american...and I definitely don't have british ancestors.

Edited by Behemoth, 24 October 2005 - 05:28 PM.

[MHarney]

Good ole' Gordo - making new friends wherever he goes.  Actually - I think what he is commenting on is the decline in home cooking in general.  What I don't understand is why women get the pointy end of the stick in terms of blame.

I think the answer may lie in this paragraph from the story:

Mr. Ramsay...makes his scathing comments in an interview to promote his new series, The F Word, in which he cooks a three-course meal for each episode.

"That unmitigated bastard...the very idea! I'm going to watch this new show just to see what other outrageous statements he's going to make!"

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

See here, boiling is the father of sous vide, just at a higher temperature and without the plastic.

Edited by MHarney, 24 October 2005 - 05:30 PM.

[Behemoth]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

See here, boiling is the father of sous vide, just at a higher temperature and without the plastic.

Damn straight!

[Andy Lynes]

See here, boiling is the father of sous vide, just at a higher temperature and without the plastic.

My mother was boiling things in plastic bags before most of today's moelcular gastronomists were even born - Uncle Ben's rice, the heads of passing Americans...

[Carrot Top]

I am remembering something someone wrote in another thread recently:

I have the same question.

[*Deborah*]

OH MY GOD!

Does this mean I'm actually a MAN?

[MHarney]

I have the same question.

It usually takes between four and five mentions (or minutes, whichever comes first) for me to be fed up with any celebrity chef. In fact, I had developed a pre-dislike for Ramsay, just by virtue of seeing his name a fair amount, before I saw the eight "Kitchen Nightmares" shows. Changed my mind after that, and I still think he's a hoot.

[Carrot Top]

Hmmm. What can I say. I am tempted to say "Harrumph."



I like to smell things before eating them and I just plain don't like these sorts of smells.

.................................................

Nevertheless, your remark is an interesting one. Maybe I'll hold my nose for five minutes or so if he happens to appear on a screen that wanders before my eyes.

[Sam Salmon]

I think in general, people do not know how to cook. Across the board, old, young, middle-aged, male and female.  Convenience foods eaten alone or on the run, its the scourge of society.
Take an informal survey next time you're in the line up at the grocery store of what folks are buying. Very enlightening. It always brings me back from my fantasy world of everything regional, seasonal, gourmet, made-from-scratch, organic, cooking all day for two people mindset.

How very true.
People @ work are amazed at the fact that I cook Cornbread to eat for breakfast/lunch the first day of my work week.
Cornbread FCS?
I sometimes wonder when I wander through food stores how people from other societies would view all the prepackaged goods-whether they would recognise them as edible-certainly I often don't.

[MHarney]

People @ work are amazed at the fact that I cook Cornbread to eat for breakfast/lunch the first day of my work week.

Reminds me of those maddening commercials where the target quickly explains, "It was Lean Cuisine," just as her companions are about to accuse her of cooking (slut!).

"Say, you must have one of those whatchacallits...'bowls,' is it?"

"Oh, gosh, I could never find the four-and-a-half minutes it takes to measure and mix all those ingredients."

"I tried making cornbread once. I tasted it after the firefighters left but...it wasn't good."

[Daniel]

This guy never stops playing the asshole jock from the movies in the 80's.. And besides being a miserable bastard to everyone, he has a special malice towards women.. Again, I dont know if it comes from mother issues, or insecurities from height or other attributes, but he seems to have severe issues.. Careless if he could cook or not, I wouldn't give him a dime and I am glad his show failed in the U.S.. England can keep this guy..

Edited by Daniel, 24 October 2005 - 07:50 PM.

[Chris Amirault]

People @ work are amazed at the fact that I cook Cornbread to eat for breakfast/lunch the first day of my work week.
Cornbread FCS?

Well, all that kneading, the two rises -- it's complicated!

[Rebel Rose]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

Behemoth, you have a special knack for catching those flashes of logic just under the surface of the conversational waters. I always enjoy your posts.

And besides being a miserable bastard to everyone, he has a special malice towards women.

I guess that's kind of a compliment . . .

Edited for typos.

[jamiemaw]

Check out the article here: Women Can't Cook
Good ole' Gordo - making new friends wherever he goes. 

It's a widely known fact that Englishmen can't play soccer either.

[transfattyacid]

Check out the article here: Women Can't Cook
Good ole' Gordo - making new friends wherever he goes. 

It's a widely known fact that Englishmen can't play soccer either.

He is Scottish and its football !

[Adam Balic]

Wait, does this mean he thinks the previous generation of British women could cook?

...and we're all deeply impressed by mom's apple pie over here of course. Run me through the entire canon of American home cooking not derived from your British ancestors would you, I've got 30 seconds to spare.

Andy are you saying that the British are a nation of cooks? (Cue:Theme music; Jamies's School Dinners).

Grandma Pickles (yes, it's true) made (actually still makes) excellent scones, rice pudding, roast dead things and tea. But the entire canon of Australian home cooking has moved on a bit. I have some British friends that cook, very well in fact, but I'm not sure that it is that common. Do you have access to those types of Stats, I have looked at the home office records a few times*, but it isn't very well organised.


* Got off my arse and did it myself. Stats found here. In 2002/2003 the average UK weekly household budget was £42.70. Oddly enough, while the lowest 10% of wage earners spent £21 the highest 10% spent only £67. Good God I spend much more money on my weekly food budget then the upper 10% of wage earners!

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Angela Hartnett.

[MHarney]

Nevertheless, your remark is an interesting one. Maybe I'll hold my nose for five minutes or so if he happens to appear on a screen that wanders before my eyes.

To explain a bit how I came to like Ramsay (especially after all the negative stuff I had read), it may be enlightening for me to mention that, for much of my professional career, the majority of my time has been spent fixing other people's mistakes -- perhaps 60% of the total. Compounding that is the fact that I'm something of a perfectionist, or near-perfectionist, anyway. After doing this for a couple decades, I often wish I could take things utterly in hand, as Ramsay does, and tell the offenders precisely what I think of their sloppy, inexact work, at great volume. I can't, of course, given pesky societal norms, laws, etc., but I can live vicariously.

[Carrot Top]

Yes, I can understand that.

Watching someone else say things that really need to be said is certainly a pleasure.

Personally my own politeness slips often enough so that generally it is others are watching me with a sort of shock and embarrasment (for me as well as for themselves ) that I'd rather spend my free time watching people who seem to be able to restrain themselves.

A long time ago someone told me this saying:

"There are two sorts of people in the world - those who give ulcers and those who get them."

I've been working on being the one who gives them ever since. Not always successfully but I keep trying.

(It's not his rudeness that gives me a sense of bad taste in my mouth - it is a seemingly burgeoning sort of greed for media attention that has something to do with media and "celebrity". This bothers me in two ways - first I sort of like to think of chefs as spending their time in the kitchen not with their PR people and secondly I am one of those people that is just rubbed the wrong way by a society that seems to be in love with other people's "celebrity" rather than with other ideas and issues and things that might bring a sense of more fulfillment into their own lives in a real way. But who am I to say? If people actually are made to feel good about themselves by somehow attaching their own egos and thoughts to someone they do not know except for pictures and words in mass media, well -okay. I just "don't get it".)

Plus the angle of the story seemed wrong to me. As Shelora noted, it is not just women who are not in the kitchen.

Edited by Carrot Top, 25 October 2005 - 05:33 AM.

[PS]

Ah, the usual pre-series TV chef “controversy”. What next? The Welsh can’t cook? Left-handers can’t cook?

To be fair to Gogsy, though, the press have done their usual wrong end of the stick thing by padding out the “story” with chat about the likes of Rose Gray, Ruth Rogers and Angela Hartnett.

The quote from where all this hoo-ha appears to be coming from is “there are huge numbers of young women out there who know how to mix cocktails but can't cook to save their lives”, which hardly equates to the blanket “women can’t cook” headlines.

In my experience, he’s got a point though. My gran or mum would never have claimed to be great cooks, but everything they prepare(d) was from the base ingredients, not out of tins, jars etc. (although, obviously, ready meals were not as prominent back then and it could be argued being able to cook was more of a necessity). Now, a lot of the girls of my generation either don’t know how or aren’t prepared to cook meals from scratch. Some are “too busy” (though my full time employment doesn’t stop me preparing my own meals), some actually claim to like ready meals, saying they are better than what they can make themselves (which confirms GR’s point), while others seemed to avoid learning these skills as some kind of feminist gesture (“a woman’s place is not in the kitchen”). Some can and do cook, but they do seem to be in the minority.

[Carrot Top]

Plus that photograph of him with his tongue sticking out right into the camera (with the lovely little diamond F centered ever-so-cutely) was really gross.

Why do men do this? Have themselves photographed with their fat rubbery tongues sticking out into the camera lens? I've seen it more and more lately.

Is it sort of biologically determined mating behavior? Or perhaps a "I am a dominant male, look at my tongue" thing?

Or does it really just mean "I am an ass." (?)

Edited by Carrot Top, 25 October 2005 - 05:44 AM.