In Defense of Home Cooking

In the last month I have read the results of two surveys on the subject of home cooking. One survey reported that only about 40% of the population cooks at home. The second survey said only about 30% were cooking at home. One thing we know for sure is that fewer and fewer people either don't know how to cook or just don't cook.

I think this is a loss greater than we realize. Home cooking is a catalyst that helps to bring people together at the table. We are losing the daily ritual of being seated together (without the intrusion of television), of having the opportunity to learn to interact and share our experiences and concerns, to listen to others.

Home kitchens, despite the increase in designer appliances and cabinetry, are mostly quiet and empty today. Strangers are preparing much of our food. And our supermarkets, which once considered restaurants and fast food places the enemy, have joined the trend by enlarging their delis and serving ready-to-eat food they call "home meal replacements."

Why are fewer people cooking at home? There are, of course, a multitude of reasons. But there is one reason above all others: Home cooking in America has always been considered menial drudgery.

This sentiment is not hard to understand. Struggling immigrants did not want to see their children, in this land of golden opportunity, spending their lives hidden in kitchens and cooking for others. They had big dreams. Neither did many women, denied privileges in other areas, want their daughters to be defined by housework.

It was easy, then for big commercial food companies to sell their goods with the promise that their boxes, cans and bags of food could be ready to eat in minutes. Later, microwaves promised even quicker results with almost no clean-up necessary.

There's been almost no counter-argument. We home cooks have never gathered in force to speak on behalf of home cooking, and so the image of cookery as drudgery lives on.

I know first-hand, however, that home cooking can be simple and it can be rewarding, as well as being healthier and more economical than convenience and take-out food.

For most of my life I raised a family, and my favorite pastime was baking at home. I baked so many cupcakes for the PTA over an eight-year-period that if I had sold them, I could have retired years ago a millionaire. And I still love to bake cookies. I bring them, unsolicited, to my accountant, to friends, to just about everyone I meet.