Just watched (most of) Alton Brown’s 10th anniversary special. For those of you who aren’t cooking geeks, he is a former cinematographer who was unhappy with American cooking shows, and decided to go learn how to cook so he could do his own. His shows are like a mix of Julia Child and Bill Nye.
Now, I do come from a family of cooks. Mom worked as a cook for almost two decades, Dad cooked better than she did but with less variety, and my grandparents were all good enough to run eateries. (With a combined total of 14 kids, plus those they adopted, they practiced until they got it right.) But I like Alton’s way of showing how to do things scientifically… which brings me to a point I’d never thought of.
What about all the people out there who can’t cook? I mean, the Food Network runs shows constantly that are aimed at teaching people to cook (not to mention find good places to eat). This points at that at the very least, a sizable portion of our country cannot cook to feed themselves.
If you rely on someone else for food, how free are you?
Sailorcurt
10 Oct 09 at 11:59 PM
I think cooking is the least important aspect of your question.
Pretty much anyone with above a room temperature IQ can take foodstuffs and turn it into something to eat.
What you’re talking about is turning it into something you’d WANT to eat.
The more important aspect of your question is where do the foodstuffs come from?
Do you raise or grow enough food to sustain your family or do you depend on others to grow, harvest, butcher, package, preserve, transport, store and distribute the basic materials out of which you produce edible meals?
If you rely on someone else for your food, how free are you?
(This may have come across as condescending…I didn’t intend it to. I’m as guilty as anyone and moreso than some…especially considering that I grew up on a family farm that actually DID produce enough food of all types to sustain ourselves…I know how it’s done, I just don’t. Too convenient to run to the store when we run out of eggs than it is to raise, feed and care for the chickens.)
Dixie
11 Oct 09 at 12:19 AM
“What you’re talking about is turning it into something you’d WANT to eat.” Or that won’t kill you.
“The more important aspect of your question is where do the foodstuffs come from?” If you buy it from the store, in comes off a truck, silly! I mean, no animals are harmed for store bought food, right? (Yes, this was sarcasm. Some people do think this, though.)
“This may have come across as condescending…I didn’t intend it to.” No offense taken. I’m trying to farm more and buy less, but with as many animals as live around here, it’s impossible. Con: Lost my garden. Pro: Have tamed every game animal in the area. I now have two fawns I could pet, and I’ve begun to name my turkeys. “Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, New Year’s Eve, Birthday feast…”
Butchering an animal isn’t that hard, and for hard to get meat (ribs) I have a neighbor with a bone saw.
Kahiel
11 Oct 09 at 1:14 PM
Hate to disagree with curt, but you would be surprised at how little some people know about cooking. Having had some contact with the welfare system, I was surprised myself. Many of the poor welfare slaves grew up in homes where mom or dad didn’t cook. They didn’t learn to cook at school. So when they get our on their own and are trying to support themselves and their children, they rely on highly processed foods. If you don’t know how to cook mac and cheese becomes a staple in your diet.
A lot of the ministries that are reaching out of the welfare dependent poor are starting to realize this and teach basic cooking and dietary classes. As matter of fact one of my friends and his wife are moving down to Fl. to work for a half way house for pregnant teens. One of their responsibilities will be to each them how to shop, prepare and cook food.
Sailorcurt
12 Oct 09 at 12:01 AM
I guess it’s just one of those things that I learned so young that it seems sort of instinctive and I can’t imagine that someone wouldn’t be able to figure out how to do it.
I mean…even if you can’t make anything complicated…how hard is it to steam some green beans and throw a chicken breast in the oven???
I guess my point was, from the viewpoint of dependency vs independence (i.e. freedom)…which was what I took the subject of the original post to be…you can be a master chef, but if you’re dependent upon others to provide the raw materials from which to make your culinary masterpieces, you’re still dependent; and, therefore, no more “free” than the person who can’t successfully make Mac and cheese from a box.
Dixie
12 Oct 09 at 12:54 AM
To a degree, both of you are right. I never thought about the whole butchering/farming part… like Curt, I grew up with that. But it astounds me that there are people who, even when provided with the raw materials, cannot cook. (Almost as astonishing is the segment of the population that doesn’t realize that they are eating animal flesh when they’re eating meat…)