Americans, it seems, are crazy about the idea of
cooking. We have TV channels devoted entirely
to food shows, we own designer cookware and shelves full of gorgeously
photographed cookbooks (food porn). We
idolize hip young chefs as much as we revere old family recipes. And while we watch or read about the
preparation of some amazing dish, we are happily munching away on take-out
broiled chicken or microwaveable pizza bites.
We love the idea of cooking, but we haven’t quite figured out how to
include the activity of cooking in our daily lives. We love the idea of cooking, but we embrace
the reality of convenience.
A lot has been written about American’s decades-long love
affair with convenience food. Laura
Shapiro, in Something from the Oven, chronicles
how the prepared food industries gradually won over the hearts and minds (and
tastebuds) of American families. In Salt, Sugar, Fat Michael Moss explores
the complicated relationship between the technology of developing prepared foods
and the science of consumer marketing which convinces us that we really must
have these products to make our lives better.
Gradually more and more of the selection of recipes, the preparation,
and the cooking of America’s food took
place in industrial kitchens, and the skills of many home cooks began to
devolve into ‘just heat and eat.’ A
farmer friend, who for more than 20 years has sold meats and produce at his
local farmstand, says that it’s the
folks between the ages of 30 and 60 who just don’t seem to know much about
cooking. Those generations, the late
Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials, are clueless about most cuts of meat and
puzzled that different kinds of potatoes or apples have different uses.
It’s no surprise really.
Most of us grew up in a world where home cooked meals involved taking
something out of a package and following the directions on the back. Cooking from scratch seemed a kind of alchemy
from another age, full of mysterious practices: mincing, filleting, sautéing, braising,
reducing, deglazing. Julia Child may
have finessed these skills for us in her television studio kitchen, but except
for special holiday meals, they were not a part of the average American
family’s supper preparations.
There are some hopeful signs that the supremacy of
convenience foods may be waning. Sales
of fresh food have increased, up 5.4% according to a recent article in Business
Week. Organic food sales, according to
the USDA, show an even greater increase, up 11%. Farmers markets are booming and the numbers
just keep climbing. So somebody out
there must be in the kitchen at the ready with well sharpened knives, extra
virgin olive oil, and a good heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Bon appetit!
