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| 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?
