More and more I hear a phrase from people, men and women, that just boggles my mind:
"I can’t cook."
What do you mean you can’t cook? That’s like saying you can’t do laundry or you can’t wash your hair, isn’t it?
Now I’m no June Cleaver, and I certainly would never put myself even near the same kitchen with Julia Child or Emeril Lagasse, or even Sandra Lee, but when did cooking become a luxury? And is it possible that someday dusting furniture will become one as well? Because I hate dusting.
I think the I can’t cook phenomena is just indicative of how lazy our society is becoming on some levels, and how this laziness has also somehow become socially acceptable. In fact, I was shocked to learn last week (media junkie that I am) that another Milwaukee medium does a weekly column celebrating young people who cook. Please. We should all, young and old, be cooking for ourselves; if not for personal enjoyment, then to make certain we are eating something healthy and delicious over which we have control of the ingredients, at least a couple times every week.
I firmly believe that everyone who can read can cook! In the early 1950s, Betty Crocker, a wonderful figment of General Mills’ imagination, burst into the food industry spotlight by issuing her first cookbook -- complete with pictures; so wait, maybe you do not even need to be able to read in order to be able to cook. And that lovely red Betty Crocker cookbook has been followed by an entourage of literature from hundreds of thousands of frying-pan-wielding cooks from all over the world!
If you can read and take the time to go through the meatier parts of the Crocker cookbook (pun intended?) you can learn everything from asiago to confit to white truffle to zucchini. Supplement that in the technology age (try epicurious.com and allrecipes.com), and soon you are delving into the fundamentals of demi glaces and you will be serving up duck a l’orange and roasted butternut squash risottos in no time.
So what is the excuse then for saying you can’t cook? Maybe what people who say this are really trying to say is: I am unwilling to take the time to cook. Perhaps it is actually, I am terrified I will be a bad cook, so I never try. Or maybe, I’m just lazy and I’d rather have someone else cook for me or have takeout.
Or maybe I’m completely missing the mark here. I would quickly throw down the gauntlet and say that anyone who can read this blog can cook a pretty fantastic meal with a little effort, and with Valentine’s Day coming up, what a great time to try! Besides, nothing says I love you (or at least I really, really like you) more than a home-cooked, candlelight dinner.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
