Has cooking become a lost art?

[Butterscotch]

I cannot get a good meal out anymore. From fast food to 'home cookin' places, everyone wants to cook or recook everything in the microwave, leaving it ruined and tasteless. Even full course dinners are cooked this way. A hot turkey sandwic is now no more than a slice of Oscar Meyer out of a package with microwaved canned gravy and instant runny potatoes. Has cooking become a lost art?

 

[SeattleVertigo]

Culturally, it's becoming somewhat of a lost art, at least in America. Personally, I love to cook and it's one of my more creative outlets.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I adore cooking, and some of my creations can certainly be called 'art'. Nah, it's great. I love cooking, and love people loving the crap I serve up.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i can make omlets, pizza muffins and pasta (as long as the sauce is from a jar).

and to think my great uncle is a retired professional gormet chef... go figure.

 

[hiphop]

bah, not lost art at all. i cook regularly. lasagne, pasta, tortellini, steak, sausages, vegetables, chili con carne, tortillas, fish.. i like hot food

dont have a microwave, i cook with old crappy gas

food is one of the best things you can enjoy - with sex and music, of course - dont mess with it. everyone likes fast food sometimes, but cleaning potatoes is kinda spiritual.

 

[JanuaryStar]

Personally, I LOVE to cook! People who keep wanting to speed the cooking process up, really don't realise what they're missing out on

Taking time to cook and having a 'passion' for food (that's not just only cooking it, but really enjoying food too) -->

 

[JessicaAnn]

If you're talking cooking in terms of a restaurant experience, for the most part, yes.

Unless you're willing to go to a fine restaurant where you will pay for a good meal prepared by a good chef.

But these days, where people want a lot of food for very little money ... well, it necessitates that restaurants cut corners with pre-prepared, prepackaged food where a real chef is not needed.

 

[Liesje]

I like specific dishes from specific restaurants. My favorites taste so good to me, I don't care how it's made, whether it takes 30 seconds or 45 minutes. I've been to plenty of expensive weddings, banquets, awards dinners, etc and it seems like the more formal and expensive the dinner, the more bland the food tasted. That, and when we go out to eat it's usually to get out, not because we want certain nice foods. When I "go out to eat" with friends, we usually go to the most central place and share a few appetizers.

 

[forbonou2]

i love to cook! Hey...there are Alot of cooking schools now, can even take some cooking night classes some places! And I'm heading over to Heada. place for pizza muffins! Emmm.....is that like breakfast in a muffin? anyway,....that seems good! you too When...will be getting a knock at the door! hee...lol! just teasin' you all!

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

When I actually take the time to cook, I kick all sorts of ass. Especially Italian cooking.

pasta (as long as the sauce is from a jar).

I make my sauce from scratch

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Cooking

Shepherd's pie and chicken alfredo are my two specialties. The only thing I don't like about cooking is how lonely it is, because I have to hang out in the kitchen all by myself Recently though I've begun forcing members of my family to sit in the kitchen and talk to me while I cook, since I'm cooking for them.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I make my sauce from scratch

Spaghetti is my all time favorite food

 

[Irvine511]

I adore cooking, and some of my creations can certainly be called 'art'. Nah, it's great. I love cooking, and love people loving the crap I serve up.

moi aussi.

 

[Laura M]

I prefer eating at home. We love cooking in our gaff. Me and the housemates take it in turns to make dinner, the dishes are becoming more creative and yummy lately.

 

[U2democrat]

I try to avoid the kitchen when it comes to any serious cooking because I tend to set things on fire


I can boil pasta!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i love cooking

and when i cook, everything's from scratch if at all possible

 

[cobl04]

I love cooking as well... but not dinners per se. Usually I just make like cakes and butterscotch rolls and stuff. But I do it whenever I find myself in a bit of a rut, I find it helps a lot!

 

[hiphop]

and when i cook, everything's from scratch if at all possible

true the pasta sauces will be much better even if barilla and buitoni,the two italian companies, have ok sauces.

remember tomato sauce has to be with little pieces of carrots so it tastes sweeter. a small spoon of sugar also doesn´t hurt.

lasagne takes me about 3-4 hrs to make.. but the sugo and bechamel are important. some people said its the best lasagne they ever had, so i hope for garfield coming to visit me sometime

 

[Varitek]

I love to cook, especially sauces from scratch. I get a lot of satisfaction out of cooking a good healthy meal and then enjoying it.

 

[Butterscotch]

If you're talking cooking in terms of a restaurant experience, for the most part, yes.

Unless you're willing to go to a fine restaurant where you will pay for a good meal prepared by a good chef.

But these days, where people want a lot of food for very little money ... well, it necessitates that restaurants cut corners with pre-prepared, prepackaged food where a real chef is not needed.

This is exactly what I'm talking about, nobody in a resturant knows how to cook so it all comes in little plastic bags any idiot can microwave but it's no good! The cook doesn't have to be a chef, but it would be nice to have people who know how to cook from scratch or at least make things flavorful. That's what I feared, that it was going to come to the point where only 'fine' (aka EXPENSIVE) resturants had any decent food. Another part of it is that the 'greatest generation' of old lady cooks are dying out and most younger ones haven't learned the skills.

I am delighted to see so many of you all here still cook and enjoy it!

 

[Cin]

i can make omlets, pizza muffins and pasta (as long as the sauce is from a jar).

Every time I try to make omelette it turns into scrambled eggs

cooking + me =

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I think because of our more and more fast-paced culture people have neither the time nor patience to cook. Working families settle for boxed or pre-packaged convenience items because they feel like they don't have time to make anything from scratch. The horrible thing is that those foods are often loaded with preservatives and all kinds of things that really aren't too good for you.

I feel like TV personalities like Rachael Ray are really starting to revitalize an interest in cooking, in America at least. I've yet to actually make a 30 minute meal that only took 30 minutes (I average about 45 minutes), but the fact that I can make something healthy from scratch even on a weeknight is great. I wish more people would realize that if you plan ahead and keep practicing, cooking really isn't that hard.

I learned to cook about four months into my first year of grad school. I was relying on a lot of boxed foods, and one night while I was eating some Hamburger Helper, I finally said "Cooking can't possibly be that hard" and asked my mom for some recipes. Now I love to cook. I try to make several extra meals on the weekends to portion out for the week, since I don't get home from work until 7:30 or 8 on three nights, but if I keep the right ingredients on hand and keep my fridge stocked with veggies, I can always eat well, no matter how busy I am. It's when I don't plan ahead that I end up eating junk.

Good, independently owned restaurants seem to be a dying breed. My parents like to go out for dinner on a Friday night, but a lot of times they end up settling for something that's really not all that good because there aren't any great restaurants in my hometown. I keep saying to myself that someday if I ever get tired of teaching, I'll open a restaurant that focuses on simple, healthy, cooked from scratch food. That's what people really want, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to find.

 

[cell]

i love to cook! as long as i have the recipe and the instructions im good to go.

 

[lynnok]

I can bake, I love baking bread from scratch. I make a mean piecrust and good cookies.

However.....my cooking is dismal to mundane. I come from a long line of bad cooks. SO as to not be the next one I'm taking a class in French cooking a'la Julia. It's fun! I can make a pretty decent hollandaise but nothing to put it on quite yet.

 

[Butterscotch]

I think because of our more and more fast-paced culture people have neither the time nor patience to cook. Working families settle for boxed or pre-packaged convenience items because they feel like they don't have time to make anything from scratch. The horrible thing is that those foods are often loaded with preservatives and all kinds of things that really aren't too good for you.

That's what's caused it, working moms, no time to cook, less handing down of the recipes and skills through generations. It's also true that those prepackaged foods and fast foods are unhealthy, and this is why so many kids are obese. Even the poor are obese, because some of the cheapest and easiest stuff to make like Kraft dinner is bad for you, high in salt and calories and little nutritional value.

Good, independently owned restaurants seem to be a dying breed. My parents like to go out for dinner on a Friday night, but a lot of times they end up settling for something that's really not all that good because there aren't any great restaurants in my hometown. I keep saying to myself that someday if I ever get tired of teaching, I'll open a restaurant that focuses on simple, healthy, cooked from scratch food. That's what people really want, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to find.

That's what I think too, and it's a sad loss. If you ever open that restuarant, let us know, I'll be right over!

 

[meegannie]

lasagne takes me about 3-4 hrs to make.. but the sugo and bechamel are important. some people said its the best lasagne they ever had, so i hope for garfield coming to visit me sometime

We're having vegetable lasagne for dinner tonight that takes 5 hours to cook.

We have home cooked meals every night, apart from Tuesdays when we have chippy bits (sausages or breaded chicken, onion rings, chips, potato waffles, and sweet corn). I rarely cook, though. I suffer from extreme kitchen rage and can't stand to be in a kitchen that's not ridiculously clean, so if I cook, it takes me forever because I clean up as I go. My husband loves cooking, so I leave him to it and make sure I don't go in the kitchen until after he's done the washing up (I'll do it if he's made a really simple meal that doesn't leave little bits of food/sauce on the counters or the stove). I'm better at baking anyway, so I make cupcakes or cake from time to time.

 

[Cin]

I'm on my feet for at least 10 hours every day at work, the last thing I want to do at night or even on the weekend is stand over the stove and cook. I do have a stool to sit on when I really have to cook.

 

[The Sad Punk]

I think cooking has actually become more appreciated recent years.

Remember, for a huge majority of human history, cooking was restricted mostly to lower class serfs and slaves. Only since maybe the early 20th century have we really seen a more world-wide potential of popular or unique chefs. Fast food was more rampant in the late 20th century than it is now, in which cooking seems more encouraged with all the cooking TV shows popping up since the late 90's or so. Huge boost in home cooking with the celebrity likes of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson.

There is of course, a sense of individuality that matters when you're following the rules of more famous cooks all the time, but they seem to encourage alternative recipes, and that usually happens when you try out cooking something anyway.

 

[Thora]

I'm not that great of a cook, but the things I do know how to make are fantastic. I have a few pasta specialties as well as other things that don't require actual cooking like salads, etc.

I'm determined to become better, though, so I've been attempting to make one new dish a week.

Last night I made Japanese miso soup from scratch, and am pretty proud of the effort. It wasn't that bad. It took 2 hours to make, but it turned out well. I have to brag, so here's a pic of what it looked like:

 

[Butterscotch]

Good job!