TV and TikTok Ruined Cooking. It’s no secret that as a culture we… | by Chef Cowboy | Oct, 2023

Team IMTools
Team IMTools
TV and TikTok Ruined Cooking. It’s no secret that as a culture we… | by Chef Cowboy | Oct, 2023
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It’s no secret that as a culture we look up to celebrities. We try to look how the swimsuit models look. Try to be as strong as the Arnold’s of the worlds. Dance like they do while we scroll our phones until 2AM. We craft our music and stories around the influences of those who came before us. And the truth is this is a double edged sword. On one side it can provide inspiration to be bigger and better than you are. How amazing is that?!

On the other side, it can often rob us of being our true selves, stripping us of individuality, always being in the shadow of someone who came before us. And with that, the constant need for reinforcement that we are on the right path. Or even worse a sickening feeling of ‘what will they think of me’ or ‘I’ll never be that good’ that makes us not want to start and try something in the first place. These feelings of inadequacy have bled over into food culture.

As a society we need to look in the mirror, literally and figuratively. What has changed in the last few decades that nobody knows how to cook their own food anymore? How did it change so much that it makes more sense to spend $25 on a Mac and Cheese Dinner and have it delivered luke warm to your door and that’s a BETTER option than cooking something that is already in your fridge? Certainly there are a bazillion cook books out there. And any recipe that you could ever want to know is available at your fingertips. So why aren’t we cooking more?

I think it started with incredible marketing. The convenience of the Pizza Pockets of the world and instant gratification of a Sidekick in a bag left us with no NEED to have to learn to cook. Why plant parsley in the window when I can push a few buttons on my phone to eat? Much worse though is the constant barrage of opinions of the food we do cook needing to be executed perfectly to be edible.

We moved away from a culture where a garden was a necessity to live to a culture that if your tomato plants aren’t pruned ‘right’ the internet shames you for it. That if you can’t turn a can of tuna, frozen strawberries and cheddar cheese into a Five Star Appetizer in 20 minutes or less, you suck! If you don’t have a culinary degree you are the lowest piece of scum in the cooking world, the home cook! And if you dare invite your friends over to eat, then your pathetic attempt at making a turkey is going to be all over Instagram criticized by strangers for generations to come.

This has led us to not even trying in the first place. And it needs to stop. NOW!!

Cooking is not about replicating the same food over and over again. Making food is not about spending $50 on ingredients you don’t have because someone printed it in a book somewhere. To cook is to do two things for the human spirit. To nourish it and to celebrate it. Food is both personal and social. It is meant as much to fill your stomach as much as it does your soul.

Watching folks review food endlessly online or compete to the culinary death doesn’t do either of these. It suppresses the human spirit. Minimizes your imagination and decreases your creative resourcefulness.

The 90’s kid in me screams to tell you to “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” Experiment with food combinations your wouldn’t try before. Who made the rules? Some jackass on TV? Don’t get me wrong, rules exist for a reason, but you grow from pushing the boundaries.

Make some crappy bread a few times. Make crappy bread 23 times! In fact have a ‘make some crappy bread together’ party with some friends. Laugh. Have a glass of wine. Fill your heart as much as you do your stomach.

It’s OK to make fried rice the way you like it. It’s OK to use the leftover ham and the yellow mustard in the fridge if you want to make a Wellington for a family dinner. It’s OK to use rotini and call it Mac and Cheese. And its OK to use pasta sauce from a jar when some book tells you to confit your tomatoes with ancient Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the oven at a temperature so low it’ll take until the next dinosaur age to cook them. These are all the things that don’t matter!

Just cook. Have fun. Share it with people. And make a million mistakes along the way. Your life is not a Tik Tok video or a Masterchef competition. Quit comparing it to one.

Photo by Victoria Aleksandrova on Unsplash
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