A perfect lazy afternoon, my POV.
What I’m reading now: The United States of Arugula, by David Kamp. Kamp’s thesis is basically that America has undergone a dramatic food revolution over the last few decades, bringing “gourmet eating” into the public sphere. He thinks that one of the most interesting developments is that even many of those who are fairly helpless in the kitchen often know their way around a sushi menu, or are able to navigate the cheese section of a supermarket with some degree of expertise. In, say, the ’50s, a family’s understanding of food was pretty much limited to what Mom put on the table every day, but now even residents of the smallest towns often have at least a basic knowledge of world cuisine.
And that has nothing to do with cooking ability – facility with knives and pots is no prerequisite to genuinely enjoying food, and to being experimental with your tastebuds. I, for example, cook with cookbooks. I can’t go into a supermarket, grab random ingredients off the shelves, and whip something amazing up based purely on the knowledge bank stored in my head. But do I think that invalidates my interest in food and cooking? Not in the slightest.
As Kamp writes, “Maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world that the bustling, ever-busy, aromatic home kitchen of yore has been replaced by an ad hoc arrangement of dining out, ordering in, toting home prepared foods, and occasionally whipping up something from scratch.” That is exactly my attitude towards food – even though I truly love cooking, I’m hardly a professional in the kitchen, and certainly don’t have the time (or the inclination) to whip up from-scratch meals every night. It’s quite validating to see my perspective in print.
