the cooking animal

The NYT published another lengthy discourse by Michael Pollan last weekend. This latest article is on a topic particularly close to my heart: cooking. Pollan is inspired by Julia Child to compare the cooking shows of the 1960s to those of today. He asks why we’re so inclined to watch people cook on television, but no longer to actually do any cooking ourselves.

He correctly points out that a necessary component of a revitalized local food economy is the cook. I would proffer that cooking is also necessary if we are to lower our collective energy consumption. The energy used in processing foods is enormous, not to mention transportation, storage, refrigeration and our agricultural systems. Being able to purchase our food locally and to grow it ourselves returns tremendous power to the home cook.

Cooking, growing and sharing food are key aspects of our humanity and our civility. They are activities which set us apart from other animals. Pollan suggests a longing for these missing connections is behind the popularity of cooking shows. That we don’t want to cook, but neither do we want cooking removed entirely from our lives.

A researcher Pollan interviews (I could hear my teeth grinding at every one of his quotes) says that the skills necessary to cook from scratch have already been lost, and that people are inherently lazy and cheap.

I beg to differ. It is clear that a culture of food-from-scratch has emerged. Restaurants are again serving charcuterie platters, the online food community is full of enormously talented cooks offering ideas and inspiration, and farmers markets are selling huge amounts of heirloom vegetables which require a cook’s participation. And the gardens! It is obvious that food, and cooking, deserves every intelligent person’s attention and is starting to get it.