Why Cook?

[nixienox]

This thread is making me happy. Expressing some of the joy and wonder it is to be able to cook and feed others. I am just dumbfounded by those who don't care or don't cook. Especially those with kids, how do they do it? OK I do know (Perkins anyone?) Its an insiduous sort of message that billboard sends, that cooking is not worth the "trouble".

Some of you people do seem to enjoy your knives, huh?

[oraklet]

Some of you people do seem to enjoy your knives, huh?

it's all about power, you know

[lala]

I have a hard time thinking of anything better than using worn out cookie cutters that belonged to my great grandmother, roasting pans that cooked the Holiday Meals that my mother ate in the thirties, a tiny cast iron skillet (6 inches) that has melted sugar for caramel in countless batches of pralines starting some time around 1880 in Cass County, Tx.

Mayhaw Man, I reiterate my jealousy of your handed down kitchen equipment. While I, too have certain recipes and techniques imbedded in my brain/soul/body from my Mom, I don't have any of those wonderful pans and things used with love by previous generations. When my parents moved and tossed the old cookie jar, I almost disowned them...

[GSBravo]

I am just dumbfounded by those who don't care or don't cook.

I also do not understand why anyone would not want to cook.

[oraklet]

yes, all of that but lately most of all: the 14-year old exclaiming: "this. is. too. good.", upon which he will rise from his chair, run to a sofa, grab a pillow and scream into it.

i like that, though of course i'll tell him to perhaps try to find a more modified/dignified of expressing his joy.

God, No! Don't stifle his joy...there are so few things in life that cause so much happiness... and that's a lovely, honest reaction!

oh, he knows that i'm happy that he likes the food - but i also let him know that perhaps his reaction, when repeated, is a bit... exaggerated. forcée. or just teenageish, maybe. but of course, you're right, his joy should not be stiffled. and actually, i'm slowly but surely getting him to participate in the cooking of our daily meals.

[lala]

Ahhh...ok...didn't know it was a repeated thing... well, until he learns a new way to express this joy...

I love it when anyone on here says they're getting the kids involved in cooking... Those are some of my happiest memories as a kidlet, being in the kitchen with Mom, making real food (she never dumbed it down for me).

[bleudauvergne]

It has been a while since this thread was last active, but it asks a very important question.

Why Cook?

[Grub]

A buddy of mine is a poster child for the Carl's Jr slogan, "Without Us, Some People Would Starve." He just can't cook -- he can't even grill/BBQ stuff. It's tragic. When he hooks up with a girlfriend, he gets homecooked meals. But other than that, it's fast food -- Carl's Jr.

It struck me, that although most people can go without sex, none can go for very long without food.

Why Cook? Because it's the difference between getting your nuts off with someone you love, and care about -- as opposed to paying for it, whether it's a high-priced Michelin star-graded hooker, or a cum-burping gutterslut fast-food joint.

[PassionateChefsDie]

To please others it's simple! I cook things I dont like! Good Chefs/Cooks are generous people it's the art of giving.

[Idlewild]

I grew up cooking, in a family where eating out was a special occasion - fast food was pizza once in a blue moon, from a real Italian pizzeria where the proprietor grew his own peppers and tomatoes. I moved away to college, was broke and unclear on the concept of cooking for only one person so I ate terribly. But life was still good. I moved to the states to be with my husband, and fell into the habit of eating out a lot more often. Life was still good, but I was not looking as svelte as perhaps once I was. But both of us were working, and it was all too easy to stop off at the local tex-mex joint for drinkies and dinner after work, rather than getting home and facing prep and cooking.

Well, the stress of working full time in a corporate environment really wasn't working out for my husband. He hated it. I hated how depressed and angry he was about it. We both hated how much we ate crap because we were all out of energy for cooking. We're both food people and we'd pretty much had enough. He quit his job and started working part time, from home. Now the kitchen is always clean and usually well supplied and when I come home it's ready for me to start cooking. And he's ready to pour me a drink and listen to my day.

And so we both cook more now, and I have rediscovered how much joy there can be in making sure that every meal is a thing of loveliness, not just sustenance. I am trying to get back to svelte and I refuse to do that by eating horrible pre-packaged over-processed over-expensive diet foods. I do that by sitting down to a plate of food at dinner that I put thought and love into the composition of. For the first time I'm really grooving on my vegetables. My parents were great cooks but their idea of side vegetables was just fresh steamed. I need a little more pizazz.

So, to sum up, I cook because I deserve to enjoy everything that goes in my mouth, because every meal can be a small miracle of composition, because eating out should be a thoughtful choice not just laziness. We enjoy eating out much more now, too, because it's not just a commonplace thing. I'm eating much, much healthier than I was before, and yet I'm also eating much, much tastier food. It's really about keeping body and soul together.

[Soup]

Why Cook?

My family and I love to eat.

Soup

[chromedome]

I could second just about everything that's been said.

I love to cook; really, really love to cook (and bake). I graduated cooking school at 40 with an entry-level job and student loans, 'cause that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my working days. When I come home, after cooking and baking at two different jobs for umpteen highly-stressed hours a week, what do I do to relax? I cook and bake, of course, what else?

Okay, I'm a freak.

But it's a very deep, primeval thing. I've always loved to eat, from earliest childhood (when, of course, my tastes were rather less developed...I thought Cheez Whiz and Velveeta were pretty damn good, back then). My father has always dreamed about self-sufficiency, and subscribed to Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News since my early childhood; so I've always known where my food came from. At various times we raised pigs, rabbits, ducks, and chickens, and I participated in the cycle of raising and slaughtering the animals from about the time I started school. My father also took me hunting and fishing when he was home from sea. The first thing I can reliably remember cooking for myself was a trout that I'd caught myself in a nearby stream.

It's rather "old-school" for one of my generation (very tail-end of the Boom, or very beginning of Gen X, depending on how one measures...I don't think I fit either group, but whattaya do...), but I remember as a teenager bitching my way through the annual berry-picking marathon, with my father snarling at me that if I wanted jam through the winter I could damn' well shut up and pick. I knew he was right, but I sure wanted to grumble, just the same...

I guess it all comes from that same sense of urgency that makes me haul out the Mason jars come fall; even though I can usually buy jam as cheaply as I can make it. It's not the same, and at some level I guess I'm impelled by the notion that I can feed my family regardless of how tough things get. If push comes to shove, I know how to snare rabbits (and could skin and joint one, unaided, by eight). I can make preserves, or pickles. I can dry or preserve berries and wild fruits. I can be inventive about making meals from almost nothing...during one especially tough stretch a few years back I fed my tribe for over a week on a pumpkin, a cabbage, a dozen eggs, a sack of flour, and the various seasonings and such in my cupboard.

I was pretty happy to get a part-time job that paid me in organic vegetables; we were still broke, but we weren't going to be hungry. That's a pretty visceral thing.

We've lived an unsettled life this last several years. Every time we move, no matter how all-over-the-place things are during that first couple of days, I always unpack enough of my kitchen things to make a pot of soup and a batch of bread. For my wife and kids (and for me) those smells mean that, appearances notwithstanding, we are in fact HOME and all is well. That's a powerful form of magic, or alchemy if you will. In fact, just this past week, I've started proofing bread dough overnight so that it can be baked off first thing in the morning, and the house will smell of fresh sourdough all day. That way I'm here, even though I'm away at work.

I love the energy, the chemistry, the science, the sheer "improvisational jazz" of it. I love the sixty-second stirfry and the 24-hour slow-cooked casserole. I love the flame broiling and the slow-poaching and the gust of steam from the freshly-opened papillote. I love artfully-arranged composed salads, and big random "splotches" of stew served family-style right from the pot.

Got a pretty serious case, haven't I? No wonder this place sucks up so many of my non-cooking hours...

[sockii]

I cook because I refuse to pay $20 for a dish I can make for half the price--and make better--at home.

I cook because I am concerned about my health and don't want every dish I eat to be loaded with hidden (or not-so-hidden) fats and other ingredients I am concerned about controlling in my diet. I also like to know the quality of the meat, chicken, or fish I'm cooking, to have inspected it with my own eyes and know it was truly fresh from the market that morning.

I cook because few things are as satisfying as having a knock-out meal ready for someone I love the moment he or she comes home.

Those are just the reasons that come right to my mind. It's not to say that I don't enjoy going out to eat a couple times a week, but it does make me selective as to where I'm going to spend my dining-out $$'s. I only really enjoy going to restaurants that serve the kind of food I don't have the resources/time/ingredients to prepare at home easily, like Vietnamese & Korean, sushi, etc. Go to an Italian restaurant for a plate of pasta? I think I'll pass.

[Daniel]

Because no restaurant will cook my corn like this

[Andrew Fenton]

Because no restaurant will cook my corn like this 

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It's... so... beautiful... (sniff)

[saskanuck]

Oh, Lord, that corn looks delicious. I must try that when fresh corn is in season.

Why cook?

For so many reasons.........

It's cheaper and healthier

You can customize your meal however you like

It's rewarding - you get to eat your creations and share them with family and friends

It's become a big hobby and passion of mine and I'm expanding my horizons all the time

You have a great excuse to buy and read many cookbooks

I love to eat and try new things

I can teach my kids the science and aesthetic aspects of cooking and food

And, most importantly..............it's really a lot of fun seeing what you can make. I'm truly amazed at what I can do without any formal training at all.

Also, I never would have found this place if I didn't cook. How terrible that would be.

[Bob Musa]

Because no restaurant will cook my corn like this 

←

oh the irony ... for a final moment the pig once again has corn inside of it ...

why cook?

because my meal will be exactly the way I like it.

[designchick88]

Because there's nothing like looking at something really complicated and delicious - something that belongs in a store window or as a photo in a cooking magazine - and thinking to yourself, "I made that."

Because it's wonderful thing to be able to go into your kitchen and make roast chicken or chocolate cake or green chile stew at 3 in the morning on Christmas Day when a blizzard has closed the streets, just because you feel like it. Cooking means never having to go out for breakfast burritos the day after a major alcohol binge; it means being able to make chocolate chip cookies at 2 a.m. and giggle with your sweetheart as you lick the dough off the spoon during the late movie; it means having your spouse open the door to surprise delicious smells and a beautifully set table on your anniversary, when you've made him/her their favorite meal as a treat. Any time you feel like Chinese food, or nouveau cuisine, or a really nice Thai dish, you don't have to worry about finding a decent restaurant, driving there, how you're going to pay for it, putting up with bad service - you can just make it yourself.

Because it's a great feeling when you're able to recreate your best friend's treasured memories of a fabulous spice cake her grandma used to make for her birthday. A cake she hadn't tasted in years, that brought tears to her eyes when she put the first bite in her mouth.

And, because there's nothing like your husband coming home and telling you all his coworkers were jealous of his lunch, because he got leftover sauteed halibut, couscous, and haricots verts and they all had turkey sandwiches.

(Although, like Jinmyo, I also just like knives and fire, two things I was NEVER allowed to play with as a child.)

:)

Edited May 17, 2005 by designchick88 (log)