I read a NYT article from this Sunday's Magazine about the new Julie movie and what impact Julie Child had on cooking. I was a wee one when she was at the height of her popularity. The article talks – at length – about where we are as a country with regard to food. The popularity of the Food Network glosses over the fact that most of us rarely cook and that what defines 'cooking' nowadays is really more like assembly. Not much is prepared from scratch. The Food Network is more about the consumption of food than learning to prepare it.
I've come full circle on cooking. At the height of my cooking this winter, I put in some serious work – beating things by hand etc. That's so far removed from our food processors and bread makers, the former I recently acquired. Do those devices help us by taking away the 'I want X but I don't feel like doing A to get it' factor? Or are they a further abstraction, separating us from the work involved in putting a meal together?
Unfortunately our time starved lives necessitate that we get more from less. We don't have time to do the work it takes to prepare many of the dishes Julie cooked. Which is a shame. A good home cooked meal is like nothing else. I'm glad I know.
