What is the joy in cooking? For many people, cooking is nothing but a chore, and something that they derive no pleasure from whatsoever. I wish it wasn’t that way, which is why I am publishing this piece intending to encourage and (if it’s not too much of an exaggeration 🙂 ) inspire people to get into cooking, and actually try to enjoy it. To help with this piece I put out the following query:
I got some great responses to that. Here are the main reasons people love cooking, summarized:
And, below are all the complete submissions. If you’re into cooking yourself and have anything to add, please make a submission yourself and we’ll add it below.
I have a Bachelor's Degree (BS) in Food Science from UC Davis and I’m emphatically in love with everything food.
This love did not always exist though. In fact, the majority of my life I was convinced I could not be in the food industry because I was such a terrible cook! Countless times I attempted what seemed like simple recipes, only to fall remarkably short of my expectations.
Cooking failed to be fun because I wasn’t good at it. I thought it was an inherited skill. In other words, you either had it or you didn’t.
I was initially at UC Davis pursuing a medical degree, but I changed majors because I wasn’t in love with what I was learning. I changed to Food Science because I knew no matter what, I would always love food. Even if I couldn’t make anything worth eating, at least I’d be surrounded by it.
It’s been a long journey, but without a doubt, the majority of my cooking skills were gained within a matter of a week. It was all about confidence. I thought all delicious dishes required uniquely picked ingredients, measured and quantified perfectly, and added at the exact right moment. For the majority of my favorite dishes, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The top reasons I started to love cooking (besides my already well intact love for good food).
1) Some of the greatest dishes in the world are simple to create and require less than 5 ingredients.
2) Cooking is not an inherited skill, it is an acquired skill that takes time and patience. The perk of this being that you get to try some pretty fantastic food along the way.
3) I started laughing at myself when I brutally screwed up a dish. (I also always keep my favorite meal ingredients close by in case I do butcher a new creation).
4) Diversifying the palate isn’t about touting what you know, it’s about experiencing new things. It’s also about experiencing the old stuff in new ways.
5) While I emphasize the science of food, most of the knowledge I use is simple. For example, oils have a higher boiling point than water. Therefore cooking in oil will cook food faster. Faster cooking means less moisture loss, which in turn means a juicier meal. (Just one example)
6) Confidence! I can’t emphasize this enough, confidence is ultimately what made me want to cook more. Confidence didn’t come with years of cooking, it came with cooking a few dishes to my expectations. Getting some compliments from other eaters didn’t hurt either.
--Michael Murdy, Robust Kitchen
PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/why-people-love-cooking#michael
