I posted yesterday on twitter that I began cooking because I was hungry but continued to cook because I loved to eat, and it got me thinking. There are so many different reasons to cook, as a number of twitters pointed out. Self-defense was a good one! And with the state of our processed food, one that every cook can claim! Can I encourage other bloggers to post about why you cook? Spell it out. Writing it down forces you to know what you think. When I was nine, I cooked because I was hungry and making things was fun. Today, age 46 and devoted to family, I cook because:
—I want my family to have great food all the time that’s tasty and good for their body and brains.
—I cook because it relaxes me after long motionless hours at the computer.
—I cook because I love to eat.
—I cook to make my family and friends happy.
—I cook so Donna doesn’t have to.
—I cook because life better is when I do.
Are there any good reasons not to cook? Let’s see.
—I don’t have time. (Or, put another way, I’d rather do something else.)
—It’s too hard.
—I’m too tired.
Others?
All of these are perfectly adequate reasons not to cook. I sometime use them myself. But they're not reasons to never cook. The only good reasons never to cook are these:
Cooking gives me no pleasure, and eating doesn’t either. (This is genuinely the case for some people, and I’ll lay odds they’re not reading this post)
Fast food is cheaper than fresh food and, as I am at the poverty level, I have little choice. (The saddest reason of all, and yet another reason for those who can cook, to cook. The more people who buy good food help to lower the price of that food through demand.)
It’s almost the weekend! Time for cooking the fun stuff! I’m making wine-braised short ribs and butter-filled short bread!
Update: Loving all the comments, but this one I found fascinating: comment by danielle. And don't miss this from White On Rice, Diane, whose family in Vietnamese: "cooking was expected of me." I think it should be expected of more people.
Elliott Papineau
i'm making goat cheese and boule.
Bradley
I will ponder this myself. This weekend I am making the French Laundry braised breast of veal dish (wish me luck). Also, been rolling through Ratio, I swear I'm gonna make one hundred loaves of bread this weekend and force feed them to whomever I see, though I don't think it will be necessary.
Dana N.
Ham and navy beans. Maybe some deviled eggs - no one makes them any more, and we love them. Definitely corn bread.
Cooking is my creative outlet, and I can cook better food than we get in restaurants.(except maybe for Thai) If someone would just clean up!!!!!
David Dadekian
All those reasons, and I'm sure more, but your reasons do resonate best. Seriously, I would list those six reasons as my own 99% of the time (except substitute "Brenda" for "Donna").
I've already got things laid out for elk and pinto bean chili tonight. It's time and energy but so much better than any alternatives. Thanks as always for your great writing, Michael.
melissa
I cook because...
...since I've spent time getting better at it, most of the time my food is better than a restaurant's.
...it makes me feel like I'm doing science experiments.
...it gives me such a sense of pride when I do something well.
...I can get other people to be guinea pigs.
...food makes such a handy gift.
...it gives my mind and hands a way to unwind after a long day of sitting at a desk.
...it's a small, low-risk sort of adventure, but still deeply satisfying.
...it indulges so many senses at once. The deep green of kale, watching meat turn from deep red to brown...the smell of onions and garlic as they sauté in a pan...the crackle of a loaf of bread as it cools fresh out of the oven...the feel of a silky custard or the crunch of pork crackling between my teeth...the rush of euphoria I get from tasting vanilla bean or cardamom, that perfectly roasted chicken, the wholesome green of fresh cabbage, or the perfect synergy of hot apple strudel with vanilla sauce.
Oh, yes.
Jill A Cunningham
I cook to keep my roots close to me and remember those before me, so that I can teach and pass the past to the future.
Kim Baxter
As a stay-at-home mom to five one reason I cook is to enjoy finishing something. Sitting down to a good dinner that I have created gives me a feeling of accomplishment. No one in my house is excited by folded laundry or an empty dishwasher. My kids successes belong to them not me. But homemade pita bread or a pot of short ribs makes everyone happy and is something I can claim as mine.
PJ Mullen
I started cooking to get women 🙂 Now that I'm married I do it because my wife doesn't like to cook and she is a willing and enthusiastic test audience. I also do it so my son develops good eating habits. Being a stay at home dad we limit out eating out to maybe once a week not only because I'm home and have the time, but because it is more feasible financially. I can't wait for the day when he and I can cook together. Lastly, I also love to cook because it entertains the three or four people that read my blog.
This weekend I'm going to try to make Michael Symon's chocolate pasta and pork ragout (couldn't find boar shoulder in my area) that he made in his chocolate and chili pepper battle with Duff on Iron Chef. No recipes to guide me, obviously, but I'm going to see what I can come up with on my own.
Mark B.
I cook because it forces me to be in the moment. To concentrate on one thing, the dish in front of me, the pile of onions which need dicing, the lime to zest. With hot oil popping you can't worry or wonder about other things, you have to get to the next step in your dish.
I cook because it takes me to new places, discoveries about ingredients, and it gets me talking to the farmers and sellers at my local farmer's market.
I cook because it is cheaper and better than eating out all the time. It is comforting to have containers full of food ready to reheat and eat.
Jennifer Mathis
I cook because I want to know *exactly* what's in at least *some* of my food.
I cook because I like the feeling of accomplishing something I didn't think I could (making fresh bread or roasting a whole chicken for the first time).
Huey P
"The more people who buy good food help to lower the price of that food through demand."
I'm no economist, but I'm not sure that this statement is correct.
Connie
Actually, that onion photo perfectly represents what I associate with cooking and why I love it. There's nothing more basic to the food arsenal than an onion, and nothing more I love than the smell and sound of an onion sizzling in a sauté pan. Talk about awakening all your senses at once. Its also a social ritual, and by that I don't mean just eating with other people, but cooking with them to make a meal. I love that camaraderie.
Elliott Papineau
<-- or make the price rise due to short supply if supply remains unchanged. If more good food is produced that is driven by demand, then prices will become lower. I see the later coming to fruition just as energy efficiency has become a social point in many other (non-food) industries.
Bob
I cook:
- because I enjoy it. The process of creating something that has an immediate and beneficial value is both grounding and restorative, something I've found more essential with a career in television news. (Delving into Ratio during my Christmas vacation was a sanity-restoring - and delicious - respite.)
- because my grandfather used to cook for the family. Most of the men in our family learned to cook, and one of my cousins is a line cook.
- because I learned some of the basics when my mother had a broken wrist. That gave me the skills which helped me court my wife. (For some bizarre reason, neither of my sisters lay claim to being able to cook.)
viviane bauquet farre / food & style
Michael, thank you for engaging your readers in such a thoughtful and important excersice. If everyone cooked everyday with fresh foods, certainly our wolrd would be quite different.
As for me, I started cooking at the age of 6 because I was very interested in what my grandmother was doing in the kitchen and loved all the food that would come out of her kitchen. On the other hand, the meals my mother made were quite horrible and always ended up being a tearful affair. So by the age of 8, I decided that the only solution was to take the cooking in my own hands... I simply took over my mother's kitchen and she was happy to let me do it - cooking simply wasn't her thing. Everyday, after school, I would rush to my grandmother's and cook with her... Then I'd come home and cook a meal for my family.
Now I cook for the love of it. I love everything that goes on in the kitchen, including washing the dishes!
Lisa Maulhardt
I cook to relax. I cook to please. I cook to feel closer to my female relatives, and my ancestry (commercial bakers and fishermen on one side of the family, farmers on the other). I cook to create more than I consume in this world.
Jen
I cook because if I don't, who will? I've been single my whole life, and now live on the opposite coast from my family (for work, not really by choice). It really is cheaper and easier to prepare enough food on the weekend so I can eat well during the week, especially after a long day of work. I find that a lot of my cooking and baking is an attempt to re-create the flavors of my childhood. For example, I've been trying to get my grandmother's pork-chop recipe just right, and keep falling short. I wonder if part of it is because I have no one to share my meals with. I've invited friends and co-workers over for dinner, but they have families of their own, and just don't have the time. Food doesn't seem to taste as good when eaten alone.
For what it's worth, this weekend I will try out my brand-new cast iron dutch oven by making a beef stew, using a nice roast I picked up at the market.
Bob
Since I usually break from blogging on weekends, this will be Monday's entry. Let's have those of us who blog spread the meme by writing it up, and not just respond within the comments!
Jeremy Hulley
It's a nice way to calm down after a rough day.
Doing the leftover dishes..putting on some music..getting out the cutting board..pulling out food...steeling my kinfe...maybe a glass of wine or bourbon rocks to sip while I'm cooking..
I love those moments when things come out even better than I expected..
Dave
I cook because there is no more nurturing act that I can perform for my daughter than to provide to her the model of a man that is at once both masculine and nurturing.
Mimi
I grew up in a household that was at the poverty level. We ate our share of processed foods (i.e. whatever could be bought with a coupon like velveeta and crackers). But my Mom would cook and it kept our costs down. A pot of beans served with tortillas is very cheap to make. Soup bones are mega cheap, make a great soup, you get to enjoy the marrow (fancy!) and the dog gets a treat when you are done.
I began to cook myself in that situation to be able to have my own food to my own liking. My first things to cook were glazed carrots and peanut butter cookies. (I was just a kid).
Later, I became a vegetarian. Back in the 80's you had to cook if this is what you were eating or else you would starve.
After that faze was over, money was still tight for me so I started cooking out of fancy cookbooks and gourmet magazine because I found out I could eat like a king for very little money. As a matter of fact, I found I could afford really expensive ingredients and still cook within a budget (fancy cheese and farmers market veggies can be stretched a long way).
So for me, it is enjoyment, frugality, better quality than some restaurants, knowing what is in my food because I can pick the ingredients, caring for those I love and showing off. The downside is the cleanup.
hortron
I cook because it's a technical activity. I have always liked to perform acts of science and engineering that require fine-motor-skills; building models, tweaking circuitry, repairing gizmos and other devices. Cooking scratches the same itch.
What's funny is that I don't love to eat.
I remember once I made my first quiche from scratch, crust included. When it was done I cut it up on the cutting board and basically devoured it standing up. 2 hours of work and mess for a quick 2 minute chow-down.
Because we have to eat I can justify the cost of food, where I can't really justify the cost of putting together some grand project where the result will end up sitting on the shelf.
Rhonda
For me, cooking is a way to express love and learn about myself. It is a creative outlet. Feeding people and making them happy through food is immensely satisfying.
I asked a co-worker this question and his response was that he learned to cook to impress Girls. He said that now he cooks to impress himself as well as girls.
In a twisted way, I think my co-worker and I both are saying the same thing, it is just that we have different target audiences. 🙂
SallyBR
I cook because the entire process appeals to me: planning the meal (it can be a simple dinner for me alone, or dinner for 8), choosing the recipes, shopping for the ingredients, making the dish, and enjoying it...
Cooking for a partner, for friends, for family, makes it even better!
John Bailey
Michael
I was a bachelor cook who could do a steak on a grill and warm up hash browns from a package...and sometimes make a doctored pasta sauce and spaghetti when a date came over. Then I bought a home with a restaurant scale kitchen. Be careful of the kitchen you acquire because eventually someone will ask what you cook in such a well appointed kitchen. I learned to cook so as not to look foolish or waste a grand opportunity to to use the equipment to its full potential and create interesting meals for myself and others. Fortunately, I was able to begin growing and learning when the Food Network was starting and all the rock star chefs of today had shows that taught how to prepare dishes. Also, it was at a time when useful cookbooks and even opulent ones were beginning to appear with frequency.
As for your weekend meal, will you do your braise of the short ribs traditionally or perhaps in your Sous Vide Supreme? My sous vide lamb chop experiments have given me terrific results and what I appreciate most is the equal doneness thorughout the meat. Also, after I take out the chops from the bags, I finally learned that by patting them dry before putting them into a very hot skillet results in a better maillard reaction. The more I play with sous vide, the more I sincerely believe this is a trend that will only become wider spread and more common in the future.
Amber
I'm no food blogger, just a regular person that likes food. Here's why I cook:
-It's cheaper than going to a restaurant/fast food or microwaving some prepared business.
-I know what's going into what I eat.
-It's healthier in almost every situation. Even if what I'm making is not that healthy, I can exercise portion control or substitute. At least I know for sure I'm using three sticks of butter - it's more honest!
-I cook for the beautiful moment when everything is plated and I plunk it down at the table. Two beautiful plates with amazing food and I did that.
-I cook for my husband. I feel immense pride when he likes what I've made. This never gets tired - I can make his favorite chicken caesar burritos every night and if he still raves about how good they are, I still feel great.
-Experimentation and entertainment
-Spending time at home, creating a healthy and centered environment for my family.
-I have to make use of all those cookbooks I buy!
-My coworkers are always jealous the next day when I bring leftovers for lunch - they are particularly wooed by homemade pizza.
-Many homemade goods reflect well on the cook and carry a certain amount of prestige - the aforementioned pizza but also certain baked goods, exotic dishes, etc.
-Gadgets! What room of the house could possibly compete with the kitchen for most gadgets?
-I love food and I love eating. And I love eating *a lot*. Cooking my own food allows me to overindulge on something that won't do much harm. You can never be sure if you didn't make it yourself.
My husband and I have compartmentalized, so that if we're having steak, he's cooking it. If we're having beans or any baked goods, that's my department. So I can't say it's true for me but it's true for our household:
-My husband can make a steak (with the right meat - hello Costco!) that is as good as any steak it is possible to buy at the fanciest restaurant. There are many, many things that can be made better with better technique. Steak, in my opinion, is steak. We're working on the sauces but for now, throw a hunk of blue cheese on top of mine and I'm in heaven. Fancy steakhouse dinner at home: $15 for two.
There are probably so many other reasons. We cook almost every night and WE LOVE IT. Cooking is awesome!
Clay
I cook because it's the most time consuming hobby I have. I write for a living and for fun, and there's always watching basketball this time of year or reading. But cooking is something I enjoy immensely and it keeps me from getting bored!
I also love good food, so I learned how to make it.
As far as not cooking - too tired or, simply, I don't feel like it. This happens once a week. I also love the sights, sounds and smells of restaurants and bars, so I won't cook a few nights a month so I can enjoy going out.
Dan, hobby cook
Michael, I learned from you what to call what I do - "hobby cook" is a great fit - thank you.
If I'm honest with myself, I think my cooking is ego-driven: I like to impress. But lately I think it's taken on a life of its own, and I do it just because there's no place I'd rather be than the kitchen.
I'm cooking a 6-item tasing menu for a wine tasting tomorrow, so I'll be in the kitchen for 12 hours or more. Thai, Greek, Italian, Korean, Cajun (Paul Pruhomme's spiced peach gravy on grilled pork tenderloin - yum!).
Andrew
I cook because I get better food for less money. I will never understand anyone who says fast food is cheaper.
Kate @Savour Fare
I cook because it's creative and incredibly satisfying -- the process is directly tied to the result.
I cook because my family has to eat, and we can't afford (from a money perspective or a health perspective) to eat out all the time.
I cook because I have more practice than my husband, and therefore I'm more efficient than he is.
I cook because I'm damn good at it, and some of my favorite food to eat is food that I've cooked.
Sometimes I don't cook because I just can't face doing the dishes.
Genevieve
I cook so I can be with people I with people I will never see again; I cook because there is no form of entertainment more engaging or exciting.
Kate
I cook, because I moved from the NYC area to a culturally challenged area. If I want something more top-shelf or different - I have to special order the ingredients and cook it myself.
chad
"too hard" is a perfectly adequate reason not to cook? really?
http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/01/america-too-stupid-to-cook.html
care to clarify?
Walker Lawrence
I posted a quick response to this entry.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye-royalty/2010/02/why-i-cook.html
sheiladd
I started to cook very young because my darling mother was a terrible cook. It really was self-defense; I could not eat what she put on the table and neither could my younger sibs. By ten I took over the kitchen, and planned and prepared all the meals until I left for college. I had an excellent teacher in my elderly great-aunt, who was a terrific plain cook with the ability to make everyday food special and delicious.
I cook now for all sorts of mundane reasons - to control what I am eating, to please and nourish my friends and family, to save money. But mostly, because cooking is part of living well, as a whole and mindful person consciously enjoying the world.
Liz
I started cooking "ethnic" foods (Mexican, Indian, Thai) because I either lived in places where I couldn't get those cuisines or I really couldn't afford to go out for them, so where else was I to get them. Now I say that my Indian food tastes better than what you can get in most restaurants!
I also cook from scratch because I believe that we are being told how hard it is to cook as a way to get us to buy more and more processed forms of food we don't need. I refuse to let any corporation tell me that I am too dumb to cook. If I choose to take a shortcut because I am busy or a company makes a really good product, so be it, but never tell me I am too inept to do it myself!
David Gray
It makes the money reach the end of the month.
David Gray
It's the only way in rural SC to get food made with freshly milled wheat.
The Single Gourmet
I grew up in the restaurant business and have always been fascinated with food, the business and the overall culture of the restaurant. To this day, the kitchen is the one place I love being more than any other. It's a great source of comfort and relaxation for me, and a place that always brings me a lot of happiness.
Katie
I cook because it combines my two favorite things, food and science. An edible experiment is the best kind!
Guy
I wish I could remember the author's name, but she started an essay on food with the statement "I come from food the way some people come from money."
That describes why I started to cook. All of you have pretty much captured why I continue to cook.
Donna
Cooking is s a creative act, it's meditative, and the results are often beautiful, delicious, and deeply satisfying.
Elizabeth@obcookie
I cook because as a medical student, I had to give up a lot of my old creative activities like composing music, and it is a tangible, edible source of creative inspiration. There's also no better excuse to have friends over, make you clean your house and spend the free Saturday over the stove instead of on the couch. I cook because you get to eat what you make (instead of for example, a quilt...that would not be very yummy). I cook because it's fun and more than two meals of eating out makes me feel sick.
Diane Cu , WORC
I cook because, culturally, it was expected of me. I'm Female, I'm obedient and my place was in the kitchen alongside my mother. Growing up, cooking was a loathing chore, a cultural prerequisite that kept me constantly in the kitchen when I would have much rather played soccer.
As I evolved into a young homecook in my family's kitchen, I discovered that there was a deeper meaning and significance to every stage of preparing a meal. Grocery shopping, ingredient selection, preparations, the technical importance of timing stocks, stews, braises and other dishes were all lessons in science, food history, cultural bonding and patience.
Now, in the context of what I do now as an adult, the act of cooking (what used to be a chore) is much more compelling to me because I now experience the gratifications of feeding. Feeding is the other wonderful half of cooking, the community part, the experience of bonding with everyone that wasn't in the kitchen with me.
To me, to feed someone allows me to bring people together, to connect and to give back. Feeding fosters friendships, patience, understanding, tolerance and keeps my mind open to everything and everyone.
I cook, I feed and I love it all.
Thank you Michael for stimulating discussions, as always.
-diane
marcella
Diane, I am totally with you on the meaningfulness and the sheer delight of feeding the ones you love. My blog carries an epigraph that reads, more or less: "I love you, therefore I feed you" (where the Italian word for "feeding" comes closer to "nurturing"). And I love the joke that goes, The best love line is not, "I love you", but, "Have you had your dinner?"
But then again, I'm from Italy and thought it was such a very Italian-mom thing to feel 🙂
Sharing this with you really made my day.
Thanks so much Michael for such an inspiring question.
Christine @ Fresh Local and Best
I live in a city that makes it hard for me to cook, a place where my 4x9 kitchen is considered spacious, where there is good competition at every corner, where I have to wait in line for 20 minutes in the grocery store's check out stand, and where I need to battle ten to twenty blocks of dense oncoming pedestrian traffic when I am schlepping bags loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Nonetheless, I am fulfilled by creating my own dishes, knowing that every ingredient has been carefully selected and added with care. More than nutrition, home cooking has made me garner a deeper appreciation for other cultures, useful cooking techniques and talented individuals who never cease to come up with intriguing ideas in the kitchen.
Ron
I cook because it relaxes me.
I cook because I love to eat.
I cook because I am a natural experimenter.
I cook because it exercises a different part of my brain.
I cook because I love to see my wife and friends happy when they eat.
I cook because it is the only thing in life that I have complete control over how it turns out.
Diala
I cook because cooking gives me peace, makes me happy and with it I make the people that I care about the most my family and great friends, happy as well.Researching recipes for inspiration, is truly time well spent, I proudly think of myself than more of a foodie-which is overused by now, I am a food geek:-).
I love the feeling of seeing the whole set up of amazing food , happy faces, the taste of a new recipe, but mostly, I love the process of getting there.
I love that my daughters ( 5 and 11) love to help out- and have to own the paddle attachment after we 've mixed cake or cheesecake batter.
Cooking = happiness for me, and everyone knows it.
Maria
I cook because it makes me happy and it makes my family happy to eat. Even when I fail and it turns out to be a flop, I still learn from it and can think of something positive about the experience. When a dish is perfect and everyone enjoys it I get a sense of accomplishment that I don't get from my regular paying job.
joyciel
Well I first started cooking because I thought it sounded fun and I had a craving for cookies but didn't want to go out and buy it. Those were like gateway food or something because then I wanted to try baking cakes which lead to another thing and so forth.
Now I cook because it's something that I enjoy more than anything. Like it's something I was born to do, I've never been good at much things (not that I was incompetent or anything but just didn't excel) but cooking just felt right and it comes so easily to me. I'll be crushed if I don't make it as a chef!
Hali
I’m a student, and while I have always loved to eat, I have just recently discovered that I also love to cook. And I think that one of the reasons that I love to cook is that the results of cooking are so much more concrete than the results of reading, an activity that I currently spend most of my time doing. Obviously reading books gives you knowledge (which is awesome), but you can’t really touch the knowledge, or smell the knowledge, or really even see it.
And reading cookbooks is like the best of both worlds: I gain knowledge from reading them, and then I can execute that knowledge in a tangible way that can be enjoyed by both me and my friends.
Dot
I cook because I love to share that talent with friends and family. I love all aspects that have to do with the culinary arts, every since i can remember I LOVED going to the grocery store with my parents. As a child all my drawings were of me behind some counter of a bakery or diner, I always knew I wanted to be a Chef. I begged my Mom for a Easy bake oven but since she was an ER nurse she said no because it was too dangerous. My first job at 16 was in a pizza shop, i'd save up money for pastry cookbooks. After high school I went to culinary school and worked in a professional kitchen for 10 years. Now as an adult I love the weekends where I can go to the farmers market. My husband and I have this thing where each weekend we take turns trying new recipes from all the food magazines we get. For Superbowl food we each had one slab of pork ribs, do whatever you want with it-Who would make the better ribs?? I swear I was born to cook 🙂
Natalie Sztern
You half lose your bet:: I love to cook, I don't like to eat what I cook.
The family and friends love to eat my cooking
I actually get no pleasure from eating what I make.
Most of the time and I can mention one two hands what I both enjoy making and eating; most recently one of the meals was Michael Symon's Mac and Cheese.
Just in case the women who read your blog whose husband's all cook for them I want to leave them with this thought:
For the 32 years I have been married I have had one continuous request to my husband and that is to create a meal from beginning to end and cook it for me; just him and me...no dishes to do, just the shopping, the research and the cooking.
He has spoiled me in the most lavish of ways for birthdays and anniversaries...but just once make me a meal, I say. I would forgo everything else.
I am still waiting.
I suspect I will die waiting.
I envy a woman whose husband cooks. It is the most selfless act a man can do for his love. Donna, et al; I am a lucky woman but you are a notch luckier.
Michael O'Donnell
I cook because it is the ultimate blend of creativity and practicality.
Tom Coughlan
Why I Cook
http://www.tomcoug.com/blog/?p=39
Sandy Netherton
In addition to a previous post I will add to the minion and say that cooking connects me to my culture and my heritage. I keep a regiment of Portugese food going in my home so it's not lost. (Azorean to be exact.) I am the only person I know in my entire family who keep this tradition alive so it's crucial (in my mind) to have it as a part of my family. I no longer live in an area where there is Portuguese food around the corner, but by God you can get it at my home and you can get it done traditionally, and you can get it done well. Gratefully my grandmother taught me well. I am teaching my 15 year old son and hope against hope that he will use it and pass it on.
Louis Doench
I Cook, Therefore I Ham...
Danielle
I cook in response to my childhood but not to recreate flavors or because anyone in my family was an excellent cook. I was raised on things like Lucky Charms, Oscar Mayer and McDonald's, though not for reasons of poverty. Until as recently as my late 20s (I'm 35), I thought cooking was a waste of time. Looking back, I recognize the denial; I wanted to believe nobody cooked for me growing up because cooking really IS a waste of time, when the reality is simply that nobody cared enough about my brother and me to cook.
Pardon the psychobabble, but late in life I discovered you can--you must--give yourself the things you feel you missed out on as a child. It eventually dawned on me, after nearly three decades of eating soup from a can and dinners from microwavable cardboard boxes, that maybe I could do better for myself. Maybe cooking just for me would be worth the time and effort...if I only knew how. So, I began learning everything I could, through cookbooks, DVDs, blogs like this one, participatory classes, etc., and started cooking like a maniac. I've certainly had my share of disasters, but today I make my own stock, bake my own bread, can't IMAGINE buying salad dressing in a bottle, and cook one actual, set-table/sit-down meal every single day, without exception. And before the first bite passes my lips, I offer a silent expression of gratitude for the food I'm about to eat and appreciation for my ability to have cooked it.
Ultimately, I cook because it's a meaningful declaration of independent adulthood and a satisfying way of caring for myself (and now, for others) that had been absent from my life for far too long.
abarefootboy
,,, Danielle , your words nourish my heart.
Elvia
This was both heartbreaking and empowering. I almost cried; thank you for writing it.
Cheryl Katz
I was raised on what I generously call "convenience foods" too! For me it was not because nobody cared, but because nobody knew better at the time. And I cook today half because I love to make things, and half because I want to give myself daughter the best, healthiest, tastiest and most WHOLE food there is to build a body with. I can really relate to what you wrote.
It's amazing and wonderful that you took that denial and turned it around into such a positive element of your life.
Jen
No psychobabble in sight---I appreciate your honesty and celebrate your accomplishments. My mother was an excellent cook who didn't encourage me to learn (it was her outlet). It took me a similarly long time to give myself permission to experiment and I have a lot to learn, but I feel I know what good food tastes like!
Louis Doench
Seriously... I learned to cook to impress my future wife.
I continue to cook to prevent her from becoming my past wife.
Patty Marguet
. . . i always tell my husband, "you may want to trade me in someday for a younger wife, but just remember, she'll never be able to cook like i can . . . at least not in the kitchen!"
Kate
After 2 weeks of eating dorm food my freshman year, I got pretty sick and just felt rotten in general. Ever since then I've been cooking everything and anything in "self defense", because I like to know what I'm putting in my body, it's a stress relief, it's cheaper, it tastes better, and I like to think that every time I buy a non-injected free range chicken that I am voting to sustain those values.
matt
Cooking to me is an adventure that is constantly evolving and never ending!..
cory barrett
I cook because:
-Death is the closest we can come to living.
-Single ingredient breakdowns thrill me.
-Of the aromas
-the sound
-its an amazing way to take ideas from my head, and put it into my body.
-I respect it.
Christian
I thought this poster of all the ingredients in a pizza pocket strangely relevant to the current discussion: http://www.flickr.com/photos/getjustin/4364760317/
Self-defense indeed!
allen
I grew up with my dad who had zero interest in cooking so if you didn't make it you didn't eat it. I was better off buying my own food when I got a job. I remember having Oscar Meyer bologna and no bread, or it was bread and no Oscar Meyer bologna when he was shopping, peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches would suffice,
Then my grandmother got me a skillet for xmas and a recipe of browned hamburger, cream of mushroom soup and tater tots on top, my dad liked it and I found pleasure in making him happy, that planted the seed and now I find pleasure in making family and friends happy with food, not that old recipe though, it's a global exploration of recipes from all over the world.
And you can't be angry very long when your cooking, the anger melts away like butter in a hot skillet. Exercise would probably do the same thing - that's just a hunch though, can't actually attest to that as being fact.
Michelle
I cook, therefore I am.
Miriam Fogarty
I like to look for just about all of the reasons listed but I am (temporily at least) kind of intrigued as to why people don't cook, either at all or more than they could.
My personal opinion is that many of the TV cookery shows (although very popular forms of entertainment) actually alienate viewers.
It seems to me that the viewers strive for the perfection of the TV results but NOBODY tells them to chill a bit because LIFE STANDS STILL for the TV camera (the phone or doorbell never rings. guests are never late, children are never sick).
When is anyone going to realise that most of us who live in THE REAL WORLD simply don't have the luxury of 30-60 of uninterupted time in a cooking capsule to replicate the dishes and presentation of the TV celebrity chefs?
Matt Kopans
I cook for all of the reasons above. Here's why I don't cook (when I don't cook):
- Sometimes I want something that I am unable to make given my limited kitchen resources. For example, my stovetop only gets so high - if I want a real stir-fry, I go out.
- Sometimes I want to eat something that a restaurant will be able to get better quality products for (we're going out for sushi tonight)
- My wife and I want to eat very different things (I like spicy foods, she does not) so we go out.
finally, I sometime do crave the artificial grossness that's out there. I know, I was raised by wolves, but sometimes I really want a McDonald's Cheeseburger (not often, but sometimes) and I cannot duplicate that flavor at home.
allen
Oh yeah, my weekend meal is flattened chicken breast, dusted in seasoned whole wheat flour and a little polenta for crunch, seared in olive oil with minced rosemary, garlic and red pepper flakes until brown on one side flip, deglaze with lemon juice, sauvignon blanc and butter, a few capers and a side of broccoli blanched and shocked with a little butter, lemon juice and sea salt, served with garlic bread and white wine. Takes about 20 minutes, cost is less than 10 bucks, a nice healthy change from red meat and a wonderful pairing with white wine, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc: Niebelo Icon I found for 3.99 a bottle.
The economics of prepared fast food doesn't make sense, you'd spend more time and money driving out for a couple of value meals in the drive through or the pizza to show up.
Sarah
I couldn't agree with you more about loving to eat and therefore finding great enjoyment from cooking. As a mother, there have been times in recent years that cooking has become painfully laborious. Mostly because of catering to a toddler palette which includes some really bland meals. Yet for me, loving food has made me love cooking as well. I do look forward to the weekends to relax, have some wine and cook something that makes me and my stomach really happy. Those short ribs sound terrific!
charity dasenbrock
oh now that I have read all the responses, I could go write a long addition to my blog post. So many interesting comments!! thank you Michael for asking the question and thanks to all who answered.
here is mine..
http://forlifepersonalchef.com
( and yes, I was the gimpy one at the PCN convention in Charleston and no, I am not gimpy anymore. I can handle a long full day in the kitchen, thank god)
Karen Downie Makley
I second everything that Donna said. It is a beautiful, nourishing, creative pursuit. And during my worst financial moments, it has forced me to be more creative and improve my skills ("how can I make this $3.00 cut of beef taste as good as the $12.00 cut?") Cooking allows me to learn something new (and useful) every single day.
ohiofarmgirl
I don't just make my food.. I MAKE my food. We raise 95% of our meat and a good portion of everything else food related (eggs, milk, etc... grains coming this year). With all this good stuff its criminal not to cook. Why pay for $20 plate of food that you can make at home? Fast for for us is opening up something we canned or froze...and that we grew ourselves. Tonight's 'fast food ' took me less than 7 minutes standing up and and cost of goods was about $1.
Off topic - Ruhlman - I was never so surprised to see your Charcuterie book in Hoegger's Goat Supply catalog. Humm.. chevon salami anyone? Can't wait to use your techniques from this beautiful book.
Susan
I cook for many of the reasons you stated, but also because it's a creative outlet for me and a pleasure to do for my family. My husband is the main creative cook in our house and I am the creative baker. It's one of the things we do that brings us together and it brings our family together with us in good health, adventurous appetites, and knowledge and awareness of how food is present in just about every aspect of living. And we do indulge in the occasional fast food grab once in while, but as a treat rather than a staple...as it should be!
Kelly
I cook truly because I love to eat. If I get a sort of craving in my head, its wonderful to be able to create something satisfying to quench it. It doesn't always turn out as planned, but that's part of the fun and adventure. My husband likes everything I make -- even the flops. This weekend, I plan on trying a recipe I just found on Smitten Kitchen (the Cauliflower and Carmelized Onion Tart) which I believe is adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe. Will provide just the right amount of creative license I may need for the pastry, and who doesn't love a final product drenched in melted cheese!
S. Woody
I cook because it relaxes me.
I cook because what I cook generally tastes better than what I can buy already made (not always, I do have my failures),
I cook because my partner recently had heart surgery, which is leading us to rethink what we are eating, and controlling what we eat is easier when I make it myself. I cook because I want him to live longer.
Tonight: Tempura shrimp, rice flavored with lemon and sesame, and an experiment involving zucchini (can what I used to do in the frier for zucchini fritters be translated to the skillet as, what, a zucchini pancake?).
laura
I cook because I like to. I cook to feed my family, to show off, to impress, to show someone that I love them. I cook because I can control the ingredients.
This weekend i'm making two kinds of chili, cornbread and a citrus salad, can't wait to have the crowd over and share.
Rhonda
...And now that we all have the "Warm Fuzzies" out of our system -- for your edification and pleasure, please refer yourselves to Chef Del Grosso's Blog "A Hunger Artist". Michael has a link attached.
I love you Chef. I know that particular sentiment will never give me immunity to your potential scorn.
I am learning every day.
Damn, you are tough.
Andrew
I cook because:
1) I like to eat;
2) It's unbelievably relaxing after a long day at work (I'm a lawyer) and a long commute home;
3) My 7-year-old likes cooking with me;
4) It counts as doing chores around the house; and
5) My family loves it.
Joe
I cook, because ...
- it's something from which there's near instant gratification ... at most it's some hours after you start preparing a meal, you have the results
- I love good food, but can't afford to eat out as often as I'd like
- no matter how good the food is, there's always room for improvement, so I know that as much as I like what I cook now, what I cook next year will be better
- it makes people happy
- I can include my kids in something that they can do for their whole lives
notyet100
u got me thinking,well i luv to cook as it works like therapy for me,..;-)
Jacki
Bottom line...I cook because my husband and daughter's health depends on it. They both have Celiac Disease, and so 3 years ago when they were diagnosed with it, I had a choice. Either eat chicken and rice the rest of our lives, or learn to cook. I had never opened a cookbook before October 2007, and fortunately I found out very quickly that I simply love to cook. It relaxes me and gives me joy and peace.
Carri
People ask me all the time if I ever get sick of cooking...I think that to not cook is a luxury, how do you eat, if you don't cook? Ultimately, it's been a survival thing for me. I grew up in a very violent household where the kitchen was thee only safe place to be...as long as I was in there cooking good things, the wrath would not fall on me. Through this I also learned that food can tame the most agitated of souls...and with that knowledge I made a life out of feeding people. The kitchen is a great equalizer, you may not have a degree, but if you work hard and apply yourself, you can succed. I love that.
Michael
I wrote my own blog piece in response to this. It can be viewed here:
http://viewfromthekitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-cook.html
Quynh
Frankly, I did not start cooking until after giving birth to my daughters. I learned to cook because I did not want them to think that cookies came from Chip Ahoy!. I grew up in a family, where my Mom loved to cook, but not clean, and so I was her kitchen slave to clean that is. Though I'm Vietnamese, but I cook better Italian food than the Italians in Italy. Now I cook for my family, because just like you, I don't want junk food! It's so much less expensive to cook a nice meal at home and you can drink good wine without having to worry about breaking your budget! My daughter now is a good cook and, oh, she said that because of me, she loves to cook as well! Nothing makes a mother prouder than that!
amy
I cook because
It allows me to work with things I never have.
And learn from them.
I cook because I find something totally relaxing about it.
I cook because I love good food
I cook because I have a good idea of what's in my food
I cook because it is, in it's own way, an art form
I cook because no matter how much you think you know, there is always something you don't know.
I cook because I respect my food and the items (knives, gadgets)
I cook because I love eating food
I cook because I love good food
I cook to learn my mom's cooking
I cook to learn about my culture
I cook to learn about other cultures
I just plain love cooking.
I don't always eat what I cook either.
michael bash
Agree with your reasons up to Donna. Remember Marcella Hazan reacting to one who said s/he didn't have time to cook, "What do you do? Starve?!" Also I've often said cooking produces the only art you can eat. High praise
Boonie
Sometimes I have a hard time justifying cooking for just myself...Cooking for others is one of the great, simple pleasures in life...And, it's not for the soliciting of praise and compliments by those I feed...It just feels, well...good...Nice post, Michael...Let's see some pics of those short ribs, Donna!
Cucumber Pandan
Thanks for the inspiration to write it out!
Here's "Why I Cook": http://cucumberpandan.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-i-cook.html
Brian
I originally started cooking because it was an creative outlet for me. I can't draw or paint or otherwise make anything (I can barely put together those bookshelves you buy at Wal Mart LOL), but in the kitchen I could get the creative juices flowing and really make something.
I still cook for those reasons but now it has expanded more along the lines of the self-defense Michael mentioned. Too much fast food was taking it's toll on my waistline and leaving me generally unsatisfied throughout the day. Now I spend my days off, cooking my week's worth of veggies and rice etc and it is the most relaxing and enjoyable time.
The Chef In My Head
Hmmmmm...why I cook??
I truly love the creativity of the whole thing, colors, textures, flavors
I truly love my "Mikey" friends, they will eat anything and they love me enough to honestly critique my creations.
I truly love seeing the looks on people's faces when they really like what I have prepared.
Mostly, it is one of the ways I enjoy most showing those around me how much I care for them. I want them to feel special because I took the time to prepare something for them. It all sounds a little mushy, but it is a passion afterall ~LeslieMichele
Diane
I cook like just about everyone else, out of necessity. It's also cost effective and can be a healthier choice than selecting from a restaurant menu. In addition, cooking can be a form of creativity and if you are not hungry when you are cooking, it can be quite relaxing!
Tags
I can't argue with putting this post in the "technique" category, but "rant"?
I'd put this post in the "poetry" category before I put it under "rant."
mel in austin
i cook because it is how i show people i love them
Tony
I cook for just about every reason that has been already mentioned here. It is just a great question! I also think there is a companion question that I'd like to offer up. Why do we eat?
I eat for all of the obvious reasons. It excite my senses; site, smell, touch and most importantly taste. There is another reason that is all too often forgotten, health.
If it were not for eating we would starve to death and, well that's not good for your health ;-). Also, if we don't eat a combination of foods that give our bodies the nutrition that it needs it will cause harm and possible death too.
My point here is not to just preach the virtues of eating nutritious food but to highlight the wonderful intersection of these two questions; why do I cook and why do I eat.
It is through this understanding in how these questions intersect that I can enjoy cooking and eating the many foods that Michael explains in beautiful detail in his book "Ratio".
Gary Allen
I taught myself to cook because I became interested in Japanese food and there were no Japanese restaurants within 90 miles (and because I was a student, and could never afford to go to them anyway). That led to more experimenting with other cuisines -- and while most of my friends were eating brown rice and seaweed (it WAS the sixties, after all), I was learning to bake my own croissants. Thank you, Julia Child!
Forty-odd years later, I'm still (happily) learning.
Alison Ashton
I wish I could say I was inspired by my mama's cooking, but she wasn't much of a cook (aside from making some killer tacos).
I didn't start cooking much until well into my adulthood, because my husband and I got bored with eating out too often. We still eat out, of course, but now what we eat out inspires what I cook at home.
BTW, Michael--love your Ration iPhone app!
Melanie rovens
I am an artist. When I could not paint, spices and ingredients became my canvas and paints.
Fran
I cook because I can. I cook because it gives me and others pleasure -- even if it's only those catching the aromas of my cooking as they walk off the elevator to our floor on the way to their apartment. I cook because I'm inspired by what I see, hear, and smell throughout the day. And I cook because I am a slave to instant gratification. I like to finish what I start and cooking allows me to do that.
Thanks for the great writer's prompt!
marcella
Fran, what a meaningful insight you gave me. "I like to finish what I start and cooking allows me to do that." You see, I'm the queen of procrastination and I'm much too fickle for my own taste. However, in the kitchen I change into someone else, someone who actually loves to finish what she starts - and there's nothing weird about that, it's just the way it should be. Makes you think, uh? I'll give it a good thought at the next coffee break. Thank you so much 🙂
msue
I cook to feed my soul and to give love to my husband and friends. Cooking connects my inner world with the outer world, and teaches me about other cultures and experiences.
I cook because it makes me feel in harmony with something bigger than myself, and I give thanks to those who eat what I offer.
But sometimes i cook just because I'm hungry! 🙂
JokeIII
I cook because I seek very specific tastes from what I eat and I can't get anyone else to provide those for me.
Joe
I cook because:
1) at 26 yeras of age, just back from Vietnam I was single and didn't know if I would ever marry so figured had to get better at cooking.
2) my mom was a fantastic cook and I wanted to replicate some of the things she did (she gave me recipes, but I regret not getting 'hands on' baking training from her, am now resigned to never having bread or rolls that good again)
3) my Korean born wife was an incredible cook (other regret, not learning to make kimchee although I assisted)
4) my wife asked me to make scampi when her high rolling Korean bridge playing buddies would come to town.
5) my dad asked me to make lasagna for him
6) I like it when people ask me to make them certain things and like it even more when young people ask me to show them how to make something
7) it ain't that hard and my wife taught me to be fearless wrt to cooking, she was an amazing replicator ... am thinking how she started doing her own hot pot modelled on a meal we had in Taipei many years ago ...
8) was once assigned to Warsaw, my wife taught Poles how to make kimchee and somehow managed to put on a full fledged Mongolian BBQ in our backyard before we left Poland in 1993 ... how could I not cook after being around her?
Oh and yes, I am a food snob, I abhor chains
Carrie Oliver
I started cooking because I wanted to be a big girl not a child! I started grilling because I realized early on that he (or she) who commands the grill is The Man (or Woman). The other reason was my mom went away for a week when I was about 9 and my dad was hopeless in the kitchen. That week I discovered I LOVE to cook!
Michele M
I started cooking because I grew up knowing the importance of food in a family tradition. The familiar aroma of a family sauce, holiday tradition cakes, cookies, pastries all of these things taught me at a young age that these were easily obtainable constants in life. I learned to replicate the dishes and recipes that I grew up on and then moved on to attend culinary classes and teach myself through books with trial and error results. I now find solace at a flour covered board, the dough under my hands reassures in the continuity of something so simple yet so important to everyday life. When all else fails, people will still be hungry and someone will need to feed them. I love knowing that I am that someone. I might not conquer the world, my name may not ever appear on the front page, I will not discover any cures for disease...but at my hands many will be fed, some will find comfort and all will be told that to share food is to share love...it is a basic need.
Cathy Curtis
Cooking gets me into the "zone". It is creative and soothing. I also really like knowing exactly what I am eating, how much butter, salt, etc. Very few restaurants serve food that I would want to eat every day. Not that it isn't delicious but it can be high in calories or too rich. I love to cook from my weekly CSA veggie box - who knew vegetables could be so beautiful and so tasty? I bond with my husband when we cook together, we share the same love of fresh, seasonal, local foods..it's just another way to keep us connected.
cybercita
most the women in my family were very good cooks and expressed their love through their cooking, and so i guess it's natural that i do, too.
my mother died when i was eight, and i became responsible for dinner for my brother and father pretty soon after that. i soon learned how to broil a steak, steam some broccoli, and bake a potato, and get it all to the table at the same time. i started cooking my way through the new york times cookbook, which my mother had left on a shelf in the kitchen. by twelve, i had mastered a basic white loaf, brisket, and chicken soup. i could make cream puffs, iles flottant, and mayonnaise. i also requested that i be allowed to be in charge of the gravy at thanksgiving, since my aunt was a terrible cook and i knew instinctively i could do a better job than she could. {i did.}
now i cook because i love the creative outlet that it provides, and because the food i make at home is much better, cheaper, and healthier than restaurant food or takeout. i love my sunny little manhattan kitchen with actual counter and storage space. i love my all clad pots and my wustof knife and my lodge skillets. i love my little cloth lined basket that always has an onion or two, an avocado, a mango, a pear, carefully ripening. i love my spice racks, i love my microplane and my citrus reamer. i love my store of nuts in the freezer, the thoughtfully purchased collection of pans: loaf, springform, tarte, pie, eight and nine inch cake, cookie, jellyroll. i can't imagine not being able to cook or bake on a daily basis. nothing gives me more pleasure than having company and planning a menu.
Keikalani
I cook because it is a delicious passion that continues to teach, connect, and surprise me. I am an artist and after eight years of serious focus in the kitchen, I've discovered an entirely new, constantly evolving love. I began "basic" cooking as a necessity many years ago and because I farm from a year-round organic home garden I wanted to enjoy the most out of the crops I was tending. My husband and son are both long-distance runners so these days I focus on being a personal chef for two athletes - I am enjoying that adventure a lot. I also make it a point to share my skills with friends and host parties where cooking, eating, drinking, and celebrating are the focus of the evening!
BobY
I cook because my parents did not and after my first trip to France I discovered what real food was. I cook for the transformational aspect of it - my greatest cooking memory was when I cooked a dish from an early Julia Child program, Chicken Livers in White Wine Sauce. She used cornstarch as a thickener, and when the sauce actually thickened, I considered it a miracle ! I cook because I love to eat.
Victoria
I am an only child who was raised in NYC. My grandfather owned a butcher shop on Broadway. I ate good - and healthy - food at home growing up, cooked either by my English mother or my Italian-American grandmother.
Every other year, when my mother took me home to visit her parents, we sailed back and forth on the M.V. Britannic, a Cunard White Star Liner that took eight, instead of five, days to cross. Even when I was young, we ate each meal at the second seating, and I was never regulated to "nursery tea," which is when most children ate their last meal of the day on board ship. The food was delicious and plated by a steward using French Service (two spoons in one hand).
Then once in England, even though it was post WWII, the food was a delight. My grandfather there was a pork butcher, and he made those lovely pork pies that you so love, MR. We had crumbly, pale orange Cheshire cheese, bright red cherry tomatoes, green onions, fresh eggs softly boiled with Hovis bread toast soldiers, tea with milk, and Victoria sponge cake for high (workingman's) tea. I can still sense Sunday lunch - roast lamb with gravy, crusty roast potatoes, cauliflower - oh, the cauliflower - and trifle.
When I got engaged at 19 years old, I ate dinner at my future mother-in-law's every Sunday. The food was excellent. And when I got married at 20, even though I had not learned to cook at home, I took the two cookbooks I had received as presents - the 1964 Joy of Cooking and the blue Craig Claiborne New York Times Cookbook, which carried as an inscription, the Thomas Wolf quote "There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves," and set myself the task of learning to cook.
My first meal was going to be meat loaf, but it took too long to cook, so I took a tip from Joy and made it in a muffin tin - like little meal loaves. But I used dried parsley, so it was more like parsley balls. Fortunately, it's been uphill since then. I learned to cook, I love to cook, and, not a surprise, I never used dried parsley again.
Now my motto is that even if I've put in a long day at work, "I'd rather eat late than out!."
EAT!
I am a personal chef ,and it took me almost 20 years to "find the right profession" for me. I know this is the career for me because it does not feel like work when I am working. There is not a day I am bored or wish I was doing something else.
That is why I cook.
Isabelle
I cook because it makes me happy. It is a place where I am at ease. I love the way I can transform ingredients into something amazing. Flour, water and yeast all by themselves it is nothing exceptional but mix them together, work it and you will have some breads.
I love to play with food and flavours.
allen
The wife has a cold and I wanted to get her some hot thai chicken soup, tom ka gai - the one without the coconut milk, not sure if the name is correct. The restaurant did not open until 1100 am, it was only 1015. I knew I had the arsenal in my freezer for this: galangal, lemon grass, lime leaves, samal olek, 3 crab fish sauce,green onion, cilantro, one lime, lots of home made chicken broth and plenty of meat or seafood. So I have it on the stove cooking away and can adjust the heat level to her liking after it's made, a few frozen items but still superior to the one I would have bought. I'm also making some thai curry over jasmine rice, chicken satay with homemade peanut sauce (so simple to make - peanut butter, 5 spice, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sambal olek - mix and serve) This little feast would have set me back over $50, I made it for less than a 1/3 of that. A good reason to cook. My appologies to chef Pardus, but the egg rolls are frozen. I am still waiting for his fresh spring roll demo.
h lee
1. It is the métier that I use to perceive the world. History, culture, language, geography can all be traced through food
2. Because it is my avenue of choice for personal expression.
3. Because it transcends language to convey emotion
4. Because it relaxes and focuses me like nothing else.
5. Because my grandmother lives when I smell her pound cake baking in the oven
6. Because cooking and the garden are the only things that teach me patience in a way I understand
Metaxa
I cook because I like to.
Some other things I like to do have laws regulating them, but so far cooking is regulation free.
That is a bonus.
Ellen Lee
I grew up as one of the older girls in a large farm family (12 children) in Alberta. I learned to cook early, to help my mother and because it got me out of doing other chores which were less appealing. By the age of 12 I could make a basic roast beef dinner with boiled potatoes and gravy, and by 15 was experimenting with cream cakes, pies, bread and baked apples.
I love to cook because I love to eat, and it is a way to make things the way I like them.
I find cooking therapeutic - relaxing and stimulating at the same time.
Cooking releases my creativity and allows me to create things that please others.
Alisha Attella
I started my career in the kitchen as a bobble-headed three year old when my grandmother stuck me on a stepstool and put a wisk in my hand.
Over the course of my young life I continued a bit here and there: dreaded coffee can bread from teen magazines, lovely (though underseasoned) dolma, haphazard attempts at fancy dinner parties for school friends. I always enjoyed these experimentations but never gave the process much thought until it was time to declare what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I had long struggled between the arts and sciences. Should I go into medicine or direct film or teach art?
Suddenly the proverbial light bulb surged bright and I realized that cooking was a perfect blend of creative expression and chemistry! Viola or Eureka (depending on your preference)! A chef was born.
Though I no longer cook professionally, I never feel so myself and strangely at ease as when I've got my four home range gas burners blazing, bread in the oven, and a tumbler of wine on the counter waiting, ever so impatiently for my living room to fill with very hungry, very thirsty family and friends.
That's why I cook.
Ray
I like to cook because I get to use my knives.... I'm not entirely kidding. THere's something about using your hands, making something good and necessary. I work in an office..in the world of ideas. Cooking grounds me, connects me to the earth. And yes it's very fulfilling to feed my kids and my wife.
Ed B.
Ditto -- from what others have to say. I love to cook and if I had my druthers, I would stop working and cook for enjoyment and personal fulfillment. My mother was an excellent, self-taught cook and I watched her whenever I cook. My father was a strict disciplinarian who forbade me from watching my mother as, to him, cooking is "woman's work!" How disgusting! Anyway, I'm married to a woman who enjoys my cooking "experiments." Give me a challenge, but my philosophy is to use the best, freshest ngredients available and to keep it simple. The less complex, the better is my mantra and I get such joy out of watching guests' eyes light up when they try something I made and, consequently, I light up feeling their love from my "gifts."
Hershey
I cook because it shows a representation and extension of myself *same reason why I also made my food blog*
It is my craft that I hone it through repetition where today's creation should be better than yesterday's and the day before yesterday and last week and so forth...
Lastly, I cook because I want my to be satisfied with my craftsmanship. I always think that one can be perfect with his own craft but it seems impossible, one can only be satisfied thus making me to want learn more, to cook more, to experience more about food and cooking! 🙂
chico
So many of these comments are soulful and inspired that I almost don't want to add to them, but here goes. I learned to cook to prevent my mother (an amazing women in most respects) from accidentally poisoning my three brothers and me. When the four of us were arguing about who had to go to Taco Bell, buy one taco and grab 10 or 15 sauce packets so mom could make meatloaf (or, even scarier, spaghetti sauce) it was clear someone had to learn to cook. I started at 14 and by the time I was 16 I was in love with the process (I was also the family cook). I'm 52, my brothers and our families get together frequently and I still love feeding these guys.
AmazingAmma
I began cooking because ... well... I'm Indian and my childhood was centred around the kitchen. My fondest memories of childhood are of being in the kitchen in my parents' house or in one of my grandparents' houses , or in friends' houses and listening to the rich sounds, smelling the amazing aromas and tasting the delightful flavours produced there. Memories of both men and women gathering in kitchens, passing on delectable stories and even more delectable recipes dot my childhood.
I continue to cook because I'm passionate about it. It's the one thing that will calm me, that inspires me always, that satisfies my curiosity, that continues to challenge me and that I know I can never master... there's always some elusive recipe or flavour to attempt.
I cook because it sustains me physically, mentally and emotionally. I cook because it's a way to connect with my children, my siblings, my extended family. I cook because I know this is a valuable skill to pass on to my children and eventually their children. I cook because it gives me an opportunity to connect with my cultural origins and to explore the cultures of others in a sensational way.
I suspect that I cook for more reasons than I truly know. Thanks for asking such a profoundly insightful question!
chadzilla
I am always amazed when people associate 'cooking' with 'making a mess.'
There is hardly any mess when I cook no matter what the undertaking.
Really learning to manage cooking teaches organization. It's a mental exercise on top of everything else it offers. You must think ahead of time, plan things out, learn to improvise when the plan falters, and use all of your senses to achieve the desired result... or salvage a different result. It hones all of these skills. It's like rock and roll.
Alex M.
"Fast food is cheaper than fresh food and, as I am at the poverty level, I have little choice. (The saddest reason of all, and yet another reason for those who can cook, to cook. The more people who buy good food help to lower the price of that food through demand.)"
um, if demand increases, prices go up until supply goes up to compensate for the increased demand, in which case they stabilize.
In the scenario you present, the opposite would be true: the more people buy cheap, bad food, the cheaper good food would be, because demand drops while supply stays the same.
On the other hand, I cook at home because I can make stuff cheaper than I could buy somewhere else, and It's really easy to find simple, cheap, nutritious recipes these days.
Rhonda
@chadzilla:
Me too!!!!
I think I love you in a dysfunctuional kitchen sort of way. You think like me and therefore, you must be right!!
gary olander - seattle
Having cooked most of my life as a professional , I would like to share my favorite quote
' Cooking is the art of loving something to the point of supreme eadibility;
alan watts
AmazingAmma
What a fabulous quote!
craig
I have to blame Anthony Bourdain. Yep, I read Kitchen Confidential and thought "F**k YES!" this is what I want to do, so I did. I have been cooking professionally now for nine years and I am still as fanatical about cooking as ever. I am 29 and a Sous Chef in Colorado.
gb
I cook because:
-it takes me back to my little Granny's kitchen where I first learned the craft and love of cooking
-it is the way I unwind
-my husband would only provide take out food which is like eating cardboard
-it gives me purpose
-I love to eat
-I love the bond it builds between people
-it brings me joy
Badger
My reasons:
1. Because I like to eat.
2. Because two members of my family have food allergies and it's just safer to cook from scratch than to risk giving them prepared/processed food that might be improperly labeled ("natural flavoring"? WTF IS THAT?)
3. Because, after cooking for a while for the above two reasons, I have fallen in love with food -- growing it, buying it, preparing it, feeding people with it, etc.
4. Because I'm a bit of a science geek and the chemical reactions involved in cooking give me a little thrill.
5. Because walking into the kitchen, pouring a glass of wine, turning on some music (I like Zee Avi when I cook, dunno why), grabbing stuff out of the fridge/pantry, assembling my mise, and getting to work on dinner has become an essential, much-loved, and much-looked-forward-to part of my daily routine.
Henry
I started to cook because: It seemed like a better job than dishwasher, busboy, or waiter.
I continue to cook because: I grew into loving it. I'm pretty darn good at it. It makes other people happy as well.
AND
Last and certainly not least: It puts bread on the table, both literally and figuratively.
What I cook for a living has nothing whatsoever to do with what I enjoy cooking when feeding family and friends, but it is, in the end all cooking and enjoyable.
Al Webster
I cook because I love food that tastes good, is reasonably priced, and is good for you. Now I learned to cook at a very young age because Mom said..."You don't want to have to depend on a woman to eat well." She may just have been laying the ground work for my future spouse to get out of cooking....
Ben
I started cooking because I spent two years in China and started to miss western food. Chinese food is some of the best in the world, but sometimes you want some pulled pork bbq, fresh flour tortillas or just some chili. Since then I've continued cooking because I like to eat what I cook and for the satisfaction of watching my wife, family and friends enjoying what I've made.
Judy
thanks for the thought process!
http://divinacucina.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-i-cook.html
Living in Italy, where eating out is too expensive to do on a regular basis and most restaurants have to cook as well as mamma--- most people eat in!
I have adapted to my new country- but still adore going out to eat and learning new tricks! But it better be good!!!
kate hill
http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2010/02/21/why-i-cook-too/
Karen
My grandmother was a good, plain cook and, even though the vegetables were cooked to death, her food was tasty. I would watch over the kitchen table and sometimes help (no counters; everything was done on the kitchen table). Nothing was written down. The best thing my mother made was an icebox cake, which I still do. Years passed, I became engaged and decided I would be the Best Homemaker (this was in the 50s). I took a cooking class (not hands on) and went home to practice. It was fun and it was interesting and I was a success. Then came Julia. This brought a whole meaning. This also brought a whole new set of knives and new condiments and herbs. The only thing my kids (the husband was gone by then) hated was the bouillabaisse. My skills grew and I was having fun. I have given my children a palate. The nest is empty and has been for a while. I now live in a condo with a small kitchen and I still cook and try new recipes. I can spend days in the kitchen and have a fine time doing so. From my grandmother, I learned food is love, from my mother I learned I should know how to cook, from various teachers I began to see how to do it and then built on that base. I enjoy the doing of it. My friends and family enjoy the eating of it. And this is why I cook. And I am still learning.
Stumptown Savoury
Thanks for asking and inspiring, Michael. I cook for lots of reasons.
I cook because I am fascinated by the seemingly-magical transformation of simple things; for example how flour, water, salt, and yeast mixed and heated produces bread.
I cook because I love to eat, and I prefer to eat well. By cooking I have control over the quality of what I eat.
I cook because I respect the food I eat and the people who work with Nature to produce it. Thank you, farmers. I have tried my best to grow things, and I’ve often come reasonably close to minor success. It astounds me that farmers can be successful with regularity. They work harder than anyone I know of, usually for ridiculously insignificant returns, and I can not survive without them. To honor their labor, I need to pay attention to what I am doing, and cook with as much skill as I can.
I cook because I derive great pleasure and satisfaction from carefully selecting ingredients, then combining them to produce the most delicious, nourishing meal I can. Is there anything more nurturing than to provide another person with the sustenance they need to live, and to make it a pleasure for them to enjoy? Is there anything more loving than to use all your skills and senses in the preparation of that meal? For me, the answer is no, which is why I can honestly say that I cook because I love.
Chefmikeb93
Why i cook....
Its hard to narrow down to just one paragraph but im going to do my best.
Simply to honor my culture and my family. To show people the ambience that i grew up with , the most memorable expiernce of my life is watching my grandfather cook. He loved i,t with a glas of scotch in one hand and his other hand checking the doneness of the pork. After the food was done he would watch as everyone enjoyed his food , they would laugh and dance. I fell in love with that feeling much like he did , the look on a persons face after you cook them a meal is always diffrent depending on the person. But it gives me that feeling im sure my grandafther shared when i was younger.
I am a Nuevo latino chef and i believe honoring my past ( culture , country etc ) will educate people to where we came from.
Nancy
I started being interested in cooking because Julia Child's show came on just before "Dark Shadows" after I got home from grade school. FYI yes, I'm THAT old.
- I love to cook because I love to eat,
- I love to cook because I love to make delicious things for people I love,
- I love to cook because I love prep. Nothing makes me happier than a big pile of veg to dice or a mise to 'place',
- I love to cook because I like attention (can't lie, I love the performance art and the praise),
- I love to cook when I'm riffin' like a sax player and it ends up tasting AMAZING!
- I love to cook because since all of my sisters do too (so does my best friend) and we have a wonderful time together.
NadaKiffa
Hmm! good question!
Well I cook because I come from Morocco and every girl learns how to cook!
Besides, everybody was cooking in our house.. My father made good fusions and was good in french cooking..
Then I started travelling and lived abroad, I opened up to other cuisines especially the middle eastern, indian and pan-asian. Then it became a serious thing because now I travel to discover the cultures through the food..Because I'm muslim, I even learned how to substitute some ingredients and not loose the taste of the orginal recipe.
The love of cooking pushed me to start a blog (in french only for time being) and got me hooked: I seriously consider to join a culinary school and change my career! Just a matter of time.
So from my first crepes flipping with dad and genoise making at 11 years old.. I guess I went a long way.
Romney Steele
I grew up at a restaurant property, and my favorite place was in the kitchen, standing besides the cooks or my grandmother, and baking cakes among other things. I cook today, because, well-yes I have to as the mom and only parent, and because I work in the profession, but that's really not why.
I cook because I do really love to; the kitchen is the place where I find solace–in the chopping, zesting, folding, tasting, trying new flavors...I love the colors and shape of food, the stories behind ingredients and recipes, the sharing with your friends and family; the journey(s) one can take through making something new are immeasurable and a wonderful escape. Cooking gives me great pleasure, as simple as that.
Sabrina
I cook because it makes me happy and sometimes it challenges me. It reminds me of good times and even sad times. I cook because I can always find my focus in a kitchen. I cook because it shows people I care and brings people together. I cook because it is who I am.
Sharon Miro
I read every single one of these, and they made me cry a little too. And because such passion and soul was put into these answers, they have pretty much covered all the bases. My comments would simply be gilding the lily. And once starting to exoress it, I might not be able to stop.
I cook, well, because, to not cook is unthinkable.
Emily
I cook because:
(1) It is a meditative practice, to do multiple things yet focus on only one at a time.
(2) I love the conviviality of "being at the table" with friends and family.
(3) It makes the house smell like a home.
(4) It is one of the most intimate gifts you can give--something a person uses to nourish him/herself (nourishment being both physical and spiritual).
(5) I love to eat!
Domenica
A novelist once told me that she could no more stop writing than she could stop breathing. That pretty much sums up I feel about cooking.
Czarra
I cook not only because I have such a passion for food, wine, and good taste but also because of love.
I cook to remember..I cook because it reminds me of my father who passed away unexpectedly when I was very young. Its something he loved to do as well as something we both shared. I figured, if I can at least cook as well as him, I'd remind others that he still lives through me.
Lara Starr
Reasons to:
* Makes me and others happy
* Sense of pride, "Heck yeah I made that!"
* Connection to those who came before me (Great-grandma's latkes)
Reasons not to:
* I hate doing dishes
* Sometimes by the time a big meal is done, I'm over it
* My picky son is largely unimpressed by my efforts
Rhonda
Ruhls:
Love the new look and vibrant colours. However, the print is very small.
Michael, can you read this without your glasses?
Ruhls, we still got Game. Don't make it harder than it should be.
Lisa
Why I love to cook? Because it….
1. makes me incredibly happy
2. is my special gift that I can give to others to make them happy
3. is relaxing and meditative
4. enables me to release my creativity
5. allows my passion for learning to be a lifetime journey
6. satisfies my love of eating great food
7. brings family and friends together
8. one of the special ways I express my love to others (especially my husband)
9. fills the house with amazing aromas
10. is a new adventure each day
Kate Little
Why I cook.
I cook because the best memories of my childhood involve people sitting around a table filled with food.
I cook because I moved to Italy when I was 19 and prepackaged food was unheard of.
I cook because 21 years later I still live in Italy and everyday the food I make is the love letter that I give to my husband and son
I cook because I respect the food that I grow and buy in the markets.
I cook because I feel it gives me a creative outlet.
I cook because it is hard for me to say 'I love you', 'You're a great friend' or 'You are very special to me' but it is easy to spend all day in the kitchen making something that I know that person enjoys, just for them.
I cook because I want my son to be healthy and appreciate what he eats.
I cook because I love to eat.
Kathryn McGowan
Thanks Michael for asking this question, it was very inspiring.
Cooking is a magical window onto other cultures. I write about food history so for me it's also a window onto the past. Researching and cooking dishes from other countries and other eras is a way of traveling through time and space without leaving the confines of my kitchen.
I wrote a more detailed response on my blog, click my name above to visit.
rockandroller
I grew up being shown how to cook so that I could take care of myself, just like how I was shown how to stand on a stool and run the washer and dryer at a young age. My Mother never wanted either me or my sister to be dependent on anyone else and she always stressed that taking care of yourself was important. But she had a love of cooking that was different than most mothers - I remember wathing lots of Julia Child with her, and different experiments she'd try, within the confines of the picky eaters in my family (most notably me, but also my Dad), which was no easy feat. Additionally, we were extremely poor. Eating out was a rare and special treat and usually somewhere really cheap like a local diner for coney dogs and fries. And thirdly, my Dad was from a traditional Greek family and the women were expected to cook all the food, and to cook it from scratch; my Mom made homemade yogurt every week, made bread weekly, and everything was from scratch. There was a strong belief that any kind of packaged/convenience foods were not only a big waste of money for the amount of food you got, but they were also far inferior to the "real" food you could make yourself, so we had almost nothing like that in the house. Mom came from a cooking family that also cooked out of financial necessity (try supporting a family with 5 children and a sick uncle on one income during the depression and you'd make everything from scratch too), where pies were made regularly for dessert, fruits were made into jelly, fresh veggies were canned to last through the winter, etc. So it's a tradition that's been handed down to me since I was born.
When I started college, I was amazed at how bad the food was. I remember being really homesick and wanting my mom's fried chicken and crying in my room, the food was just so bad in the dining hall, I couldn't believe it. I called my Mom and asked her how do I make your mac and cheese (not traditional - Greek influenced, with cottage cheese, feta and parm instead of an orangy/cheese sauce) and her telling me step by step how to make it. I took the bus to Goodwill and got an appropriate pan, sold my food coupons to buy some real groceries and baked that mac and cheese in the little oven on the floor of my dorm. I was amazed and so impressed with myself and so pleased to eat good food again, it was just the start of a long journey of cooking.
Now I primarily cook because, um, we're hungry and want to eat? Also, finances continue to play a big role in it; our dining scene in Cleveland gets better and better, but even a cheap meal out is way more than what we'd spend making it at home, so dining out continues to be a "treat" that we enjoy occasionally instead of daily, or even weekly. Lastly, most of the food we make at home is so much better than what we get out, there's no point in going out. When I say "better," I don't mean that it's prepared with gourmet ingredients or presented with a flourish, but it's with real, unprocessed ingredients chosen with care by us - locally raised meats, local or organic produce whenever possible, no corn syrup laden, overly salty fast food for us, thanks.
Carrie Havranek
I cook because it is sometimes the only thing that makes sense after a long, frustrating day; eating a good dinner is like hitting a reset button. I cook because I have the opportunity to share foods for the first time with my twin toddler boys and to see the look on their faces when they try something. So, I also cook because I love. I cook because it is the opportunity to create something beautiful, delicious, and soul-satisfying with few ingredients. I cook because it brings people into the kitchen and starts a conversation. I cook because it is soothing; just predictable enough. I cook because I want to use everything in the fridge and cabinets, to beat the clock of spoilage. And more practically, I'm doing a lot of the cooking because I get home first.
Garso
Cooking creates a relaxing atmosphere when all else seems crazy! Mark Garso
Chuck McLean
Odd that I didn't read this until today, because yesterday as I was preparing osso bucco for the first time, it occurred to me that one of the reasons I cook is because it makes me feel competent. Never cooked a veal shank in my life, but I understood the cooking techniques involved and what was supposed to happen, and how to make sure that it did. Of course, this ain't the hardest dish in the world to make, and I didn't get so confident overnight, but there is just a remarkable difference between being sure and unsure during every step of making a meal. You could have given me the French Laundry Cookbook twenty years ago and it would have been like giving Voltaire in the original French to a first year student, but I GET it now.
The osso bucco was fabulous, BTW.
Chuck McLean
Stacey
I cook because I love caring for myself (and others when I get the chance) in this way. Cooking connects you to the food and therefore with others in an intimate, nourishing way. Also, cooking is such a creative outlet -- it's just as fun as writing or painting!
Teri
I was told that I cook because I want all the praise and attention. hmmm
Paul Kobulnicky
The cycle of things ...
I compost because I love turning waste into something. I garden because I have all of this lovely compost. I cook because I have all of this lovely produce from my garden. I compost because I create all of this organic waste from cooking from scratch. Ad infinitum.
Tom
I cook for many reasons. However, the great pleasure of it for me is how cooking can transport me back in time to some of my fondest memories.
Recently, I decided Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. The meal was good enough, but something amazing happened the day after. I went to reheat some leftovers in my office for lunch and suddenly I breathed in the glorious smell and was instantly brought back to one of my favorite childhood restaurants, the New York Spaghetti House in Cleveland. My grandfather would have lunch there every Saturday, along with his high school friends. They ate there together, weekly, for probably forty years. For some magical reason, my reheated Beef Bourguignon smelled intoxicatingly close to the meat sauce that they used to serve at that restaurant. It was a smell and sense that I hadn't experienced in years, as the restaurant closed and I moved away. However, for a blinking moment, I could almost feel myself standing in the back room of that basement restaurant, sitting next to my grandfather. I may cook for many reasons, but moments like these just take my breath away.
I brought the tupperware home for my wife to inhale the heavenly aroma, but she just thought that I was crazy!
And if anybody could ever track down the old meat sauce recipe from the New York Spaghetti House in Cleveland, please post it somewhere for me!
The Rowdy Chowgirl
I started cooking again several years ago in order to care for myself better during a time of transition. Cooking had become a chore, to be gotten through as quickly as possible with the help of Trader Joe's. I realized that if I didn't take care of myself, nobody was going to do it for me, so I slowed down and started focusing on putting healthful, whole foods into my body.
There are about a million other reasons that I continue to cook...this may need to become a post on my own blog...thanks for the inspiration!
marlene
I began cooking because it was a great way to spend time with my father and brother, both of whom were avid cooks. I cook now, because for me, cooking is not only a passion, but a form of relaxation and of fun. It is also an expression of caring. I cook because its as close as I can get to sharing a piece of myself with family and friends. When I offer them something I've made, I'm offering them a part of me. If that makes any sense. It's caring enough to give them the best I can offer. And caring enough to be willing to take the time to make it so. During my brother's illness, I cooked for him, because that was the best way I knew to care for him and support him. I cook when I'm happy, I cook when I'm sad. Sometimes it's even more important that I cook when I'm sad. It's therapy. My brother and mom passed away not so long ago, my father, many years ago. I worked my way through those losses by making the most complicated things I could find, which hopefully, included a lot of chopping. Each year, on the anniversary of their death's, I celebrate their lives by making a dish that was their favourite. My brother's was raspberry pie. Dad's was prime rib, Mom's favourite thing was ribs and saurkraut. Nothing fancy, but those dishes are "theirs". I cook and I remember and I love. And those dishes, as are all the dishes I make for my family and friends are made with love, perhaps the most powerful ingredient of all. That's it for me in a nutshell.
Andy
Here is my contribution to this topic: http://lambbeforethyme.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/why-i-cook/
John
I started cooking as a child because I wanted to eat and I often stayed at home alone. My mother spoiled me by being an excellent cook, so I wanted to emulate that. As I got older, I cooked less until I lived on my own in College. Now, as an adult, I cook for the challenge. I cook to learn. I cook for the accomplishment. No to mention it's a valuable skill for a single person.
Jane
This was actually written for my application to the French Culinary Institute, which I began this past January...
By the age of 38, a person hopefully has noted the significance in certain patterns...the personal consistencies of behavior that function necessarily to help you find solace and preserve joy throughout difficult experiences. For many people, these expressions of the soul take such obviously profound shapes as the prayers of the faithful. Perhaps my soul is not so profound, but it is mine, and it has taken me 38 years to finally understand that my expressions tend to take on the shapes of cookies, cakes, chocolates and great cups of coffee.
When I was a small child, most of the years' seasons were defined by my Mother taking my sister and I on a tour of food possibilities. What to my Mother was frugal practicality and just plain fun, became the foundation of my most cherished memories. The farm in our small town where we ourselves picked the fresh produce of any particular season knew to expect us like clockwork. Summer memories are replete with luscious strawberries and peaches that we would 'help' Mother turn into all manner of desserts, jams, jellies and preserves. From an even more local source, we'd wander the woods in our own backyard filling baskets with wild blueberries destined for pancakes and muffins. My Mother's garden was quite the proud sight.....tall sunflowers, beautiful red bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes, to name just a few...all outlined with blooming flowers...and the wild onions seemed to grow absolutely everywhere in our yard! Autumns, of course, meant apple and pear picking along with pumpkins and all variety of squash which would find their ways into pies, dessert breads and dinner side dishes.
Winters; however, were anticipated by my sister and myself with the kind of excitement that only fresh from the oven cookies can generate. We would beg to make cookies earlier and earlier every year because unlike, for example, the careful requirements in preserving fruits which would preclude our hands on involvement in most preparation, we were nearly completely in charge. My sister and I chose which cookies to make and when. We carefully chose the frosting and sprinkle decorations with a very serious sense of fun. We would bake for weeks and give them as presents - all manner of gingerbread and sugar cut-outs, peanut butter, chocolate chip, pecan sandies, popcorn balls, and at least 10 other kinds of cookies...new recipes every year!
As all things inevitably change, this happy cycle was not exactly broken...yet was radically altered when my Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 27. She made sure we felt as if the Multiple Sclerosis were actually a gift to us, because without it we surely would not be trusted at such young ages to do such 'important' cooking. My sister, 10 years old at the time, was able to handle the more grown up responsibilities of sterile fruit preservation, cutting with sharp knives and cooking with heat. I, at the age of 7 and feeling as if I'd won the million dollar lottery, eagerly assumed control of all cookie preparation.
Years would pass this way, with the act of cookie making becoming more simply a fun seasonal task that I'd look forward to yearly as homework and socializing time requirements...and coffee...took precedence, resulting in a shrinking of my cookie repertoire to: Nestle Toll House, sugar, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies. This changed when my teen years reached the full crescendo of sturm und drang that only teenage years can achieve. I had a very difficult time and found myself wearing black lipstick and combat boots while baking Toll House cookies as if I were possessed. For about three years I would tinker with the recipe, ultimately altering it utterly, baking a double batch of cookies at least twice a week for family, friends and charities. That was the first time I was told that perhaps baking was something I should pursue...I disregarded that as I somehow believed one could only make a living if they worked in the financial world like my Father.
Eventually I went to college and did enter my Father's financial world....but quickly married in, left the working world, welcomed our first child and took care of my in-laws up until their deaths. I returned to work (generally telecommuting) until my company's office, which was located in the World Trade Center, was destroyed on 9/11. My husband worked in the South Tower and went through the entire experience. We lost many, many friends that day.
We eventually welcomed a second child, and the years that had passed since getting married were filled with love and family but were equally full of compounding stress, grief and sorrow...and a hollow feeling scooped out of my center that somehow, I'd not been doing what I should. It seemed to me merely a selfish complaint that I felt utterly frustrated with my husband, children and in-laws (who lived with us) for practically demanding all food be as canned, boxed, bland and highly processed as technologically possible. My Mother-In-Law's idea of 'homemade' spaghetti sauce would be to add a half pound of sugar to a simmering jar of Ragu brand tomato sauce, seriously. Worse yet, I was generally expected to replicate that style of food preparation. I felt obligated to honor the constraints of the needs and preferences of my family, in nearly every area.
My husband and I grew apart, and we separated. For months I existed in a frightened haze, planning a new life for myself that was to include a return to a career in the financial world, certain that I needed a new life but not so sure if the particular one I was planning was the one I needed to be living. I genuinely felt as if I were walking with no earth beneath my feet, and it was terrifying.
I believed that there were very few things I was doing 'right' to help my children through the strains of the separation, but there was one thing I knew would never fail: cookies. I found a way to keep an open connection with my children in our kitchen, once again altering a chocolate chip cookie recipe till it truly became my own creation. We baked cakes, brownies and cupcakes...played with chocolates and visited local confectioners to watch professionals create. I personally rediscovered the one place where the world always made sense to me, where the ground was solid beneath me and I could make something wonderful with love and a spatula.
Separately, my husband also found his way into the kitchen with our children, whipping up their own tea parties and magnificent sugary masterpieces. My husband and I rebuilt our love and friendship and my admiration for his culinary efforts soon led to elaborate dinners planned to satisfy in new ways his preexisting preferences and to interest him in new flavors. He reciprocated by running through the rain during a business trip in Zurich, Switzerland to the main Sprüngli shop just to bring me some of the most delicious chocolates on earth...and tolerating the elegantly snooty staff at Ladurée in Paris so that I could taste the spring's seasonal bergamot macaroons. He took me to the coffee shops he'd prefer not to go to, and rather than just grabbing a coffee for me to go....sat with his own cup of tea.
I realized that I was married to the man of my dreams and planned out of practicality rather than passion to return to the financial business world and simply enjoy the sense of purpose I have in the kitchen by cooking for friends and family as a serious hobby. I simply never thought my pursuing a career in the culinary arts was a practical choice for our family. My husband; however, knows the shape of my soul and thought differently. He says he sees happiness in my every movement when I'm hard at work in a kitchen and even more joy when my efforts are consumed, and he's right. He suggested I return to the never forgotten place where my college graduation party had been held...and to return now as an eager student of The French Culinary Institute rather than as a grateful dinner guest of L'Ecole.
David Owen
I started cooking because after many years I finally had enough money to buy some groceries.
Ben
Started a blog today, and posted my response on my About page:
http://fedbabychili.wordpress.com/about/
Thanks, Michael, for maintaining such a useful and engaging blog.
Tish
I started cooking in self defence - Mum was an indifferent cook - discovered the pleasure of feeding people including myself and never stopped.
Kim
This complex question has been posed to food bloggers by Michael Ruhlman. Since I learned of it, I have been mulling my answer, wanting to dig deeper. My standard answer is "to show my love", but since I have had a fascination/love affair with cooking since I was very young, the answer has to go deeper.
I loved cooking when I was small. When my mom would let me go into the kitchen and "cook" cheerios, water, flour and gum. (My first invented recipe). I enjoyed it when I competed for 6 years in 4-H competitions, learning the correct way to make cookies, all the way up to yeast rolls.
Cooking started to be connected to my emotions when I wanted to make "romantic" dinners for my high school boyfriend. I would peruse my mom's cookbooks for "fancy" foods, serving them in our family room on a tablecloth covered card table. And we would wear dress clothes. We were soooo grown up!
As I got older, moved away from the Midwest and began to discover a world of unexplored food, cooking became a way for me to try new cuisines. As I would be exposed to something new, I wanted to learn how to make it. I wanted to learn its historical origins. I wanted to learn the components that meld together to make it a true dish.And, when exploring the depths of my soul, I have discovered I have control issues. When I cook, I plan the menu and make the ultimate decision which flavors hit our mouths. I think I like this!
Also I find cooking:
Fun
Relaxing
A good creative outlet
Plus,
I have met some of my best friends through the love of cooking. Some of them I have never seen in person, yet we share a bond across state and country borders.
And my husband? He has re-fueled my passion for all things food. His enthusiasm for whatever I make provides a "fun" in meal-planning and prep that I had lost for a few years.
So down to the basics?
I cook to show my love.
Andra @ FrenchPressMemos
Beautiful question.
I cook because, as one of my last blog posts details, my kitchen is the heart of our home. There, I unwind, create, relax, share, craft, and give. It is where I honor my Romanian upbringing and where I feel comfortable both being my (type-A) self while chopping vegetables in perfect shapes and sizes and letting go and watching as a pan of spinach wilts down slowly and evenly while I stir.
I cook because cooking is magic and mesmerizing. Watching food come together to create incredible flavors, beautiful scents, whistling sounds, delicious sights, and thrilling tastes is what makes me smile.
I cook because sharing my food is the deepest sign of trust and love.
michael hart
I began cooking in college, telling roomates I'll do the dinners, and you guys do the dishes. They ate well, and no dishes/pots/pans were ever clean! Now 36 years later, with sojourns and work time in Boston, Europe and San Francisco, I'm still working as a chef and enjoying it.
Jessica
I am oldest of 6 and grew up in a macrobiotic home, I cooked because I wanted to eat tasty food! I cook now because I want to feed my family healthy tasty food. I like knowing my food-the who what and why of it. I feel like the love I have for my family is expressed through my homemade chicken stock that takes 24 hours to make, the new recipes I try (even if they're not always winners) and the chocolate cake with hot pink frosting for birthdays-cries out my love for them. I cook because I don't want the insidious ingredients food companies use, to contaminate our bodies and land. I love to cook.
Like your mama always said-you are what you eat-bon appetite!
Rose
Great post....
This is something I think about frequently, particularly when I cook. I began cooking as a way to combine my need for a creative outlet with my need to keep myself out of trouble. I was coming out of a rough time in life and needed to find something to occupy my time after the workday. Idle hands are not capable in the kitchen.
Cooking is a zen-like practice for me. I chop, slice, clean and stir all with the same quiet, peaceful motions while my mind tumbles through whatever it needs to sort its way through. I find it meditative and calming.
Out of this springs an ability to nourish those I love. To inspire others to raise a basic necessity (eating) to a level of importance. To care what goes in one's body, to care about how it affects the planet, to care about your place in the world and to create a time in the day in which you honor all of those things through a meal.
Romona
I love to read your blog though I don't always comment .
The one and most important reason I love to cook is the ability to be creative.
Example: How many ways can you prepare rice? I believe the sky is the limit.
Elizabeth
I cook because I can't imagine not cooking.
Jenny
No one ever expected me to cook, being an only child and my mother just LOVING to do it for me, so I cook as an experiment. I cook to discover what different combination of things taste like, and hopefully produce something that tastes amazing when least expected and thinking, "wow, I can't believe I just put peanut butter into stew and it's GREAT." I do it for the surprise.
marlene
Jenny, I put peanut butter in my burgers. People scoff at it until they try one!
Jenny
It works so well with cheese too!
Oooh, I must try the peanut butter burger
SMITH BITES
and here are my thoughts - great post, btw, really made me stop and think about this!
http://smithbites.com/?p=1653
Dax Phillips
Great post, and something I get asked quiet a bit. My parents were always in the kitchen, and granted we were brought up eating out every Friday night for a Wisconsin Fish Fry, and something I learned early on was their passion for bringing our family around the kitchen table. As we waited for our dinner, I was always curious about how things were prepared before they landed on our plates. As I traveled around a bit, and after living in a more ethnic diverse city such as Dallas, Texas, I was inspired to try all kinds of different cuisines, and fell in love with pretty much all of it. While I matured a bit, and got married, I began to instill those same ideas of gathering around the table and exploring tastes and flavors that I experienced over the years. Unfortunately, when we did go out to eat at a restaurant, we were, on average, disappointed in the quality of food, and really began doing a lot more in our kitchen. So for the last ten years or so, we are always gathered around the kitchen table, every night, enjoying different meals, and exploring different flavors. Cooking has brought me to a place where I am stress free, allows me to multitask (I have a night where the kids call out what they want for dinner, and I have to make it), and it allows me to be creative. Something that I truly love.
Tinky
Of course, I could say because I get hungry and because some days you just have to or your family will start throwing things, and those are both true. But I did respond to your call:
http://www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/?p=6385
katalia
I cook because I like to cook, and I like to see my loved ones eat my food. I cook because I can use fresh ingredients and know what goes into my food. I cook because it's not hard for me to do. I cook because it challenges me and serves as a creative outlet. I cook because I like to eat good food. I cook because my father was a chef and cooking makes me feel closer to him -- I frequently consult him regarding cooking, and I like that it gives us something to talk about. I cook because it relaxes me and makes me happy. In another life, I would like to cook for people as a profession -- that's how much I love it!
Sustainable Eats
I started cooking as a child because I was fed up with Hamburger Helper and boxed breakfast cereal.
Now that I have kids I'm sickened by the ingredients in processed food and refuse to buy it. I took out the lawn and planted a garden and orchard in the city. We got backyard chickens and I buy any grains, meat, milk or cheese directly from farmers. I mill the grain and make everything from scratch.
My kids, 6 and 3, help plan the garden and the menus. They are totally connected with their food and while I can't say they don't miss McDonald's or boxed breakfast cereal I don't hear any complaints about it.
Elvia
You know I'm not right if I don't want to cook.
Cooking is art: creating something out of nothing.
I love the expressions on my family's face when I cook something really delicious for them. They express a gratitude unlike any other; I have nourished and pampered them at the same time.
Cooking is a little bit scientific...and I love to explore different methods of doing things and their results.
Cooking makes me feel closer to the essence of life. It is, after all, food. But when you are really creative and spiritual about being in the kitchen, it is more than just food--it's life.
And, lastly and most importantly, too many people these days don't know where their food comes from! Not only that, they don't even know how it got made. Their is a misconception that cooking is "hard", but those of us who cook know how untrue that is. Cooking is awareness, then, and also self sufficiency.
And, I must repeat: Cooking is Rock 'n Roll!!!!!! I loved that statement!
john atkinson
when i cook i travel. every dish i make takes me to a place i've been before trough smell, taste, texture & the general alchemy of cooking. carbonara takes me to osteria alfred in rome. anything with ham & egg & i am 5 yrs old sitting on the end of the hot line @ petes on catalina island. when i eat queso fondito i see the 16 yr old maid my grandmother had @ her house in jalisco making tortillas on the porch. my pizza & i am in positano @ saraceno de oro looking out on the bay of naples. food is magic like a time machine for the soul. oh yeah, when i fuck up an egg over easy i am transported into the body of ruhlman & his never ending shame spiral @ cia so many years ago. fucking bi bim bap!
kdblya
I do love to chop. When I am stressed, I chop. It starts out as frenetic motion, but as I calm down it becomes more meditative.
Dean
I've cooked for a long time because at first it was something to do that was immediately rewarding. As I got better, I appreciated cooking as means to share with others. The most rewarding reason to cook came after making homemade chicken soup for my daughter who was ill, she wrote this poem:
The Jewish Cure for Everything
Head aching with high fever, skin pale
Brown hair falling, unbrushed around flushed, hot cheeks My yearly childhood
flu... A familiar smiling face arrives bedside, a bowl of Steaming chicken noodle
soup in his large, brown hand "Just the way you like it!"
My father's comforting words
I right myself, sipping my soup
He sits beside me, small green book in hand "Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the
forest of the night... "
He starts
"... what immortal hand or eye" I listen...
"Could frame thy fearful symmetry"
Chicken noodle soup and poetry
my father calls, the Jewish cure for everything
After that, I'll always enjoy cooking
Darcie
I can't draw, I can't sing, I can't play a musical instrument - but I can cook and bake. It's my creative outlet: edible art.
Virginia Tadrzynski
It's the easiest way to say I love you. Non-verbal, non-physical (other than the physicality of 'making the meal') pure love.
Salty
I started cooking because I needed a job. I discovered I was very good at it. I've been cooking professionally ever since. (Going on 35 years) For me it's not about food, it's about the job.
Jen at theculinaryworks.com
What a great question, it really got me thinking all the way back. I started cooking because my mother made cooking fun and creative! She would make up dishes based on what was available in the kitchen. I'm certain this was due mostly to economics, but her chosen approach made it a positive experience for all of us. It may have been fried ground beef with peppers and onions with a bit of a gravy over toast BUT when she served it, it was The Famous Gold Miner Special...or some other silly name. She gave me permission to experiment in the kitchen. I would dig through the spice drawer, smelling them all, trying to decide what to put it...and she just let me choose. I am definately going to call her tonight and thank her for inspiring my creativity and starting what not only became a life long love affair with cooking, but also my career! Thank you for the memories Mr. Ruhlman.
Erin
i cook because i prefer to eat freshly cooked food...i can't handle too much of that pre-packaged processed stuff that tries to pass as "real food" because i have to watch my sodium intake. i love to cook because it gives me pleasure to create something with my own hands, even if it's just a fresh salad. i also love cooking for the man i love even if it's something simple like pasta with fresh veggies and homemade tomato sauce. sitting down to a home-cooked meal is one way of creating new memories, so when you prepare the same meal later, you can remember the past times you made that meal, who you made it for, where you were, etc. and yes, i find that after a long day at work, chopping and sauteeing and mixing and tasting is one of the way i meditate and relax.
pshampton
My dad is not the most emotionally expressive individual. In fact, I really don't know him that well at all. However, when he cooked, I watched. When he cooked, I could ask questions without risking a grouchy retort. When he cooked, he seemed more human....just more accessible...more loving. I loved that so as a young kid, I would wait for the intense, greasy fat fast that was Sunday breakfast. Fried roundsteak, homemade hashbrowns, fresh eggs fried in pork fat and scratch gravy (although I have to give props to my mom on the gravy - hers is always better than his) . I waited for the Saturday afternoon bbq when my dad would turn cheap cuts of meat into nirvana on a plate with homemade bbq sauce and and a spice blend that he fiddled with for years. My dad was a better person when he was cooking. I learned to cook in order to be with him and to figure out why cooking changed him so. He didn't have the best life or the best job and cooking was a release. It was relaxation, it was creative. And I think that last bit is the important thing. His world view didn't allow men to be creative or expressive. But cooking let him be both. I cook for the very same reasons. I've tried many creative outlets but nothing is as good as getting out a pot, opening the frig and throwing ingredients together that slowly meld and transform into something new. Oh, and good to eat.
Michael F.
The short of it? I cook because it's a constant reminder of my 2nd chance at life.
The (slightly) longer version is that last year, after years of abuse and repressed emotional issues, I went to a 4+ month rehab here in Jersey. As the program was free of charge, it relied heavily on a work-therapy style aspect of treatment. I was placed to work in the kitchen. While I was learning to live a drug-free, mentally stable life, I was also learning to cook.
For me, the act of cooking is inseperable from the recovery process. Every time I cook, I am reminded of not only my new life, but also of what it took to get here. I had never made a cooked a meal before in my life. Two completely new things became intertwined, and led to a second chance at life.
I know where I came from, and I know that I never want to go back. Cooking helps me remember all this, and propels me forward into a brighter future.
Lindie
I cook because I love to. I love to try new recipes out on my family and friends. My mother once gave me a sign for my kitcehn which expresses it exactly. "Love is homemade".
Karen
A certain scent or aroma whilst cooking used to evoke wonderful memories of my childhood, loved ones or travels.
Life leads us down different paths and over the past 3 years I lived in Hong Kong and learnt how to master intermediate Chinese cooking, which I might add I was passionate about. Getting ready to move back to my own country for good, I suffered a head injury and unfortunately lost my ability to taste and smell. As one could imagine, I am devastated. Cooking now is that bit more challenging as I used to rely on my senses to determine whether something was cooked or not just by its smell. It is 3 months since my accident and I may regain my senses again but it is unlikely. Currently, I am in denial but I continue to throw myself into my cooking as I can see the enjoyment in my children's faces when they sit down to eat something amazing. Even though I have feelings of sadness every day, I also now rely on my children more than ever to help me out when I'm cooking as I can no longer tell if something is watery or whether it needs more sugar or salt. Food these days does not contain any flavour only texture. Cooking is also particularly hazardous for me if something is burning or the gas is left on! I love my children to bits and am all the more determined to make meal times a happy and memorable experience for them. So to sum things up, from my perspective, cooking is made all the more pleasurable if you have all 5 senses!
Larry S.
I started cooking when I was young because I was imitating my great grandmother who cooked amazing food. I continued to love to cook as I got older because it came so natural to me. Prepping for a recipe is relaxation for me, cooking is refuge from a hectic world and finally tasting a properly prepared meal is a joy.
As my father told me when I was around 12 years old, if you love to eat, you'll learn how to cook.
Aaron
I cook because I like to play with knives and fire.
Patty Marguet
i cook therefore i am.
Absurdcafegirl
I took your challenge! Turns out, I surprised myself with what I wrote. Here's why I cook:
http://absurdcafegirl.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-i-cook.html
Kev
Fast food isn't cheaper than fresh food!
I noticed this when my wife and I stopped into Wendy's when we were in a hurry one night. It occurred to me that I could have put a steak dinner on the table for a little over half what I spent on one hamburger and one chicken burger combo.
PDX Todd
Why do I cook? The short answer is because I was the only boy growing up in a house with 4 women, and it was a simple matter of survival. They said cook for us or die, so I did.
The long answer is because it provides me with an outlet for my creative and artistic desires, while producing something substantive and useful that many of my friends either cannot or choose not.
Cooking great meals for my family and friends is second nature to me now and I truly enjoy watching them devour one of my meals.
Since moving to Portland from Philly, I've become more aware of what I'm eating and how I'm eating it, and this has shown in my cooking.
Over the past year, I've ripped out my front yard and put in raised beds for gardening, started pickling tons of veggies, and have been buying whole animals and butchering them. I've also recently started making charcuterie, with the help of your book, and have had some great successes already.
I've seen you on Anthony Bourdain's show a few times, and if you're like him, I'm the kind of guy you'd want to hang out with next time you're in Portland.
I'm likely to sneak up on you in a parking lot, brandishing a spicy lonzino, jar of pickles, and a bottle of some type of liquor I distilled and infused with some kind of local fruit or nut at home. You'd think I'm crazy ( which I just could be ), but you'd get a great taste of local flavor, and then I'd pour you a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir or a pint of IPA, all made by my friends and fellow Oregonians. After a few hours of drinking and eating, you'd wake up in your hotel room the next day, covered in stripper glitter and say " Wow.. I really love Portland!!"
The invitation is open.
All the best.
Todd
Corey
I started cooking because that's what people in Cleveland Heights do, Ruhlman. And after 5 years living in a cubicle, barely liking myself in my khakis and button-downs and non-clogs, nothing feels better than getting my hands dirty and knowing at the end of the day, good or bad, exactly what has been accomplished.
Cooking, in my case baking, is one of the few contemporary endeavors where we can see the end. We can look down at the final product and say "I did this." Try saying that during your quarterly performance reviews.
It's a great feeling and one of the reasons that I continue to cook.
Corey
Almondine Bakery
Brooklyn, NYC