There has been lots of discussion about the so-called dumbing down of cookery.
To a certain extent, there is, indeed, the appearance of such degradation. Mostly it appears in three areas:
There is a fourth area, which I won’t go into, which is the snobby concept that anyone not fully versed in classic French cooking is a kitchen illiterate.
From all of this it’s easy for foodies to conclude that there’s been, overall, a dumbing down of cooking and food preparation. I maintain just the opposite. That these are signs of a wising up.
Here in the U.S., there have been two full generations that were raised without learning to cook at their mothers’ knees. Starting with the big push to convenience and ready-made food products in the 1950s, it grow to the point where the typical housewife confused “cooking” with “popping a commercial product in the microwave.”
But starting in the 1990s, and continuing at an accelerated rate, we’ve been seeing a reaction to that. The pendulum has swung the other way. Americans in ever growing numbers have turned back to cooking from scratch (or almost from scratch), using fresh, wholesome ingredients. And they’ve been discovering a wide world of tastes and flavors never dreamed of.
Some of this comes from exposure in restaurants. And much of it can be laid at the feet of those celebrity chefs. And to fancier food prep in women’s magazines. And to the abundance of cooking classes offered just about everywhere.
The problem is this: When neither your mother nor your grandmother cooked, and you have no geshtalt, how do you indulge this new-found interest in the kitchen arts? The ways girls have been raised they literally haven’t a clue where to start. Thus, it’s up to cookery communicators to reach down to them; to show them the way.
Yes, this means taking baby steps. It means broadening out the definition of terms. It means providing minute details in recipes. It means using English instead of French.
For more experienced cooks, it looks like dumbing down; like catering to the least common denominator.
I say it’s actually a smartening up.
Take Sandra Lee, my least favorite cooking personality. It’s easy to sneer at what she does, particularly those things which, to us, are self evident. But to somebody who’s been raised with no cookery background, the idea that you can use store-bought stuff to create a whole new dish is an eye-opener. Sure, some, perhaps most, who see that will never go any further. But a certain proportion of them will go on to preparing food from scratch. And experiment with presentation. And, who knows, maybe grow up to be a TV chef.
I have some expertise in the foodways of the 18th century. And, more than once, I have presented recipes (actually receipts) from those days to modern chefs and watched as they scratched their heads wondering what some of those ingredients were, the quantities they were supposed to use, how they were supposed to proceed, and what cooking techniques were involved. Recipes from the 1700s contain none of that information.
Should we therefore conclude that chefs who use modern recipes represent a dumbing down? Of course not. Why, then, do we not extend the same courtesy to home cooks? The parallel is exact.
To a certain extent, there is, indeed, the appearance of such degradation. Mostly it appears in three areas:
- The misuse of terms and techniques. My personal bug-a-boo in this regard is recipes or celebrity chefs who instruct that you “saute’ in a little water (or wine, juice, or other liquid). Bzzt! Wrong! Thanks for playing! Like most cooking terms, “saute” has a precise meaning, and it isn’t the same as steaming.
- The instructional minutia that appears in printed recipes, i.e., “in a small pot over medium high heat……” Experienced cooks shudder at some of those over directions. And it’s true, they can be misleading to the tyro.
- The overuse, particularly on the part of some celebrity chefs, on pre-packaged and convenience products. Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray being the most visible, but there are numerous others.
There is a fourth area, which I won’t go into, which is the snobby concept that anyone not fully versed in classic French cooking is a kitchen illiterate.
From all of this it’s easy for foodies to conclude that there’s been, overall, a dumbing down of cooking and food preparation. I maintain just the opposite. That these are signs of a wising up.
Here in the U.S., there have been two full generations that were raised without learning to cook at their mothers’ knees. Starting with the big push to convenience and ready-made food products in the 1950s, it grow to the point where the typical housewife confused “cooking” with “popping a commercial product in the microwave.”
But starting in the 1990s, and continuing at an accelerated rate, we’ve been seeing a reaction to that. The pendulum has swung the other way. Americans in ever growing numbers have turned back to cooking from scratch (or almost from scratch), using fresh, wholesome ingredients. And they’ve been discovering a wide world of tastes and flavors never dreamed of.
Some of this comes from exposure in restaurants. And much of it can be laid at the feet of those celebrity chefs. And to fancier food prep in women’s magazines. And to the abundance of cooking classes offered just about everywhere.
The problem is this: When neither your mother nor your grandmother cooked, and you have no geshtalt, how do you indulge this new-found interest in the kitchen arts? The ways girls have been raised they literally haven’t a clue where to start. Thus, it’s up to cookery communicators to reach down to them; to show them the way.
Yes, this means taking baby steps. It means broadening out the definition of terms. It means providing minute details in recipes. It means using English instead of French.
For more experienced cooks, it looks like dumbing down; like catering to the least common denominator.
I say it’s actually a smartening up.
Take Sandra Lee, my least favorite cooking personality. It’s easy to sneer at what she does, particularly those things which, to us, are self evident. But to somebody who’s been raised with no cookery background, the idea that you can use store-bought stuff to create a whole new dish is an eye-opener. Sure, some, perhaps most, who see that will never go any further. But a certain proportion of them will go on to preparing food from scratch. And experiment with presentation. And, who knows, maybe grow up to be a TV chef.
I have some expertise in the foodways of the 18th century. And, more than once, I have presented recipes (actually receipts) from those days to modern chefs and watched as they scratched their heads wondering what some of those ingredients were, the quantities they were supposed to use, how they were supposed to proceed, and what cooking techniques were involved. Recipes from the 1700s contain none of that information.
Should we therefore conclude that chefs who use modern recipes represent a dumbing down? Of course not. Why, then, do we not extend the same courtesy to home cooks? The parallel is exact.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
