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Monday, March 6, 2023

Utilitarian Cooking vs. Fulfilling Hobby Cooking

My primroses are blooming. Time for me to transfer them to the large pots on the porch.

In the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time sitting in medical waiting rooms. During one of my most recent waiting periods, there was a television tuned to Food Network. The longer the program ran, the more irritated I felt with the show. Now part of that was likely due to the nature of being in a medical waiting room. But the other part was genuine.

I should preface my thoughts: I don't watch Food Network regularly, as we don't have cable. My guess is Food Network also demonstrates less complicated meals than what I viewed. 

What irritated me wasn't the beautiful meal presentation or the use of top-notch ingredients. The meal looked very, very delicious and something I'd really appreciate being served. What was irritating me was the amount of man-hours spent preparing a single plate of food. 

There were 4 chefs working on the same meal, each taking a different component of the meal. The chefs were mostly working simultaneously, as I could observe the various chefs at work in the background while the host interviewed the others one at a time. My best guess is the meal took 20 minutes for each for the 4 chefs to prepare, perhaps longer with some content not seen due to film editing. Four chefs multiplied by 20 minutes comes to a minimum of 80 minutes of hands-on time for one dinner-type meal and doesn't take into account any pre-prep work, such as washing and trimming vegetables or getting out and setting up equipment. It also doesn't include what could be extensive clean-up with, for example, cleaning a pasta machine or food processor. 

My conclusion, for myself, is that I don't think I enjoy cooking enough to prepare elaborate meals. I think I'm more of a utilitarian cook. Our meals are tasty, nutritious, not horrible looking, and mostly easy for me to make. I'd rather spend time on other endeavors. To be honest, I have a short attention span. In addition, I think it bothers me that something I might put an hour and a half (or more) into would be consumed in 10-15 minutes. In contrast, when I work on a home improvement, furniture refurb, or home decor project, the tangible results last for weeks, months, or longer.

However, I can understand how someone else would find this type of cooking to be a fulfilling hobby. The results look impressive. There's an element of artistry that really should appeal to me. And I imagine the positive feedback from friends or family could make the work very worthwhile.

I do think there's a time and place for even utilitarian cooks like myself to prepare a "fancy" meal such as I saw on Food Network -- special occasions, family celebrations or holidays, entertaining guests, or some other meal experience where we linger over the meal more than our typical weeknight supper.

Both types of cooking have value. Some of us fall into one category, while some of us fall into the other category. Do you think you lean more toward utilitarian cooking or fulfilling hobby cooking? What do you think are the merits of each way? What draws you toward one type of cooking over the other?



18 comments:

  1. First, no one pays me enough to spend that kind of time making a good looking meal. In fact, I don't get paid at all. If I were paid AND had the money to buy the freshest food available AND the time it takes to put together a meal like what's on Food Network I would be employed somewhere and not making this for a family. I will, however, make my family delicious meals made from less than perfect foods I find at reduced prices at my local grocery store and out of my dad's garden. I often wonder what a famous chef would think of the food I make if he/she would watch me prepare food I feed family. They would cringe. They also don't have a budget, except the restaurant they work for, but families like ours do.

    We had steak in a skillet last night. A tough cut (from the round family) which I marinated in baking soda/vinegar for almost 24 hours before frying in my cast iron skillet. It was very tender and delicious. I made mashed potatoes with milk from powdered milk because I didn't have enough milk, a bag of frozen corn and canned green beans. Dessert was banana cake with cream cheese frosting that I froze in portion controlled packages that I pulled out for dessert and hubby chose chocolate pudding mousse made with pudding powder.

    I guess I would fall into the category of utilitarian cooking and I wouldn't change it for the world!
    Alice

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like an elaborate meal to me, Alice! Yummy!

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    2. You make some very good points, Alice. And I agree with Kris -- your dinner sounds wonderful. And interesting tip about there baking soda and vinegar marinade. Thank you!

      Delete
  2. I've never heard of marinating meat in baking soda and vinegar. I'll have to investigate that.

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  3. I am definitely a utilitarian cook. I guess it's all relative. Many of the meals you make, Lili, seem fancy to me, while they seem simple and humble to you. BTW, the Food Network does have utilitarian cooking shows, too.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      I figured they probably had less involved cooking demonstrations than what I saw the other day.
      My family is happy with what I cook, and that's what matters.

      Delete
  4. I have never liked the food network. I don’t like cooking enough to watch someone do it. Most of my meals take 15 minute of hands on time-and most days that’s too much for my liking!

    Diane

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    Replies
    1. Hi Diane,
      I can understand. I would enjoy watching a cooking show if I could learn valuable-to-me tips. But I'm really not likely to do most of the steps that I saw demonstrated the day I watched an hour of Food Network in the waiting room.

      I love the idea of 15-minute meal prep. I need you to coach me in this area!

      Delete
  5. Oh, I'm definitely a utilitarian cook. Once in awhile I might bake something a little more elaborate, but those occasions are few and far between. I enjoy cooking but I don't want to spend my day in the kitchen and I definitely don't enjoy cleaning up.

    While I think there is value to some of these shows which feature homemaking arts, I feel like they lead to problems with expectations for many people. If it looks like cooking involves lots of hours daily to churn out beautifully plated meals, then it seems easier to get takeout instead. If my expectation of a new home is for a move in ready place, then I will either overspend to get a home that meets my unrealistic standards or I will struggle with contentment with what is in my budget. All to say, I think it's wise to limit your exposure to this kind of programming.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      What you describe as problematic with shows such as what I watched on Food Network and others is my issue with Pinterest. Every once in a while I like to go on others' boards, but most of the time I feel like I'm falling short in some way, or I find myself wistful for material things, and neither of those perspectives are healthy for me.

      Delete
  6. I am barely a utilitarian cook, more a meal prep and clean up person. I cannot cook without following a recipe, which has to be short and simple. I am more interested in the nutritional value than taste and presentation. So the recipes I prefer have lower salt, sugar and fat, which cuts out the fancier recipes. Lean meats like Alice's round steak would be my preference. We recently started using baking soda (instead of flour/oil) to tenderize meats in stir fry, but never tried baking soda/vinegar. Sounds like a good idea to add vinegar since I think it would help spread the baking soda over a larger area and reduce the amount of baking soda needed. Baking soda is high in sodium, so I'm careful to use as little as possible.
    I agree with Kris that we must be careful watching too much bigger than life stuff. It can create unrealistic expectations for ourselves.

    Enjoy your day,
    Laura

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    Replies
    1. Hi Laura,
      That's so interesting that both you and Alice know about baking soda for tenderizing. I'd never heard of this. I usually use some acid like vinegar or lemon/lime juice to tenderize. I'm going to have to look into using baking soda. I buy lean roasts and cut into steaks, but those tend to be tough unless well-marinated. Now I know what else to try!

      Delete
  7. An FYI about the baking soda/vinegar and that is to rinse the mixture off from the meat, pat it dry, then season before cooking. Some people say they taste the baking soda but giving it a good rinse removes a lot of the weird taste. We learned this trick from an Asian cookbook we had a long time ago and use this for many types of lean/tough cuts of meat.
    Alice

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    Replies
    1. I also have never heard about using baking soda to tenderize meat, but I did read somewhere that to tenderize cuts of venison and reduce the gamey-ness (is that a word??), to soak the meat in buttermilk. This is one of those science-ey cooking techniques that is somewhat puzzling to me--I assume that the buttermilk's acidity is what is helpful, but baking soda is alkaline. Hmmm.

      Delete
  8. Thank you Alice for adding the suggestion to rinse off the meat before seasoning. The baking soda taste doesn't bother us but I think it would be a good idea to rinse it off. Usually in stirfry meat marinade, we combine all the ingredients together. In our last marinade, I carefully measured 1/4 teaspoon to the marinade, which was barely enough. Next time, I think we'll try a baking soda/vinegar mixture first, rinse off, then marinate.

    Laura

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  9. I just wanted to add a comment. I worked as a hospital volunteer for a long time and was in charge of our waiting room television. That said, we were NOT allowed to turn on the Food Network or other shows related to food. The reason being it can agitate patients who are there with stomach issues, nausea, headaches etc. Probably the waiting room staff wants to watch it. Just a thought. My gas prices here, Midwest /Chicago are $3.13/gal. I hope you feel better soon! Cari

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  10. I agree with you that many of the cooking shows on Food Network on TV seem to require a significant amount of time and effort. However, their website FoodNetwork.com is actually one of my preferred sources for cooking inspiration, especially when I'm running out of ideas. The majority of the recipes featured on their website are quite intricate. Therefore, whenever I decide to try out a recipe, I ensure that I do proper meal prepping and make enough to portion them into individual meal sizes, which I then freeze for later consumption.

    By the way, I wanted to share with you my recent favorite recipe from the Food Network website. I made a large batch of it and froze the portions for later. This way, the effort put into preparing the dish will be consumed over an extended period of time.

    Here is the link:
    https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/copycat-zuppa-toscana-5565099

    I modify the recipe by adding shredded carrots and doubling the amount of garlic. Instead of using pepper flakes, I use cayenne pepper powder to give it a subtle kick. I hope you like it.

    ReplyDelete

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