Question of the Day: April 17, 2008

Whatever Happened to Cooking?

I’ve been reading my mother’s diary from 1943-1944. America was at war, and there was no gasoline, but my parents were comfortable in Corvallis, Oregon. My father was too old to serve, so in addition to his other work (the early, early days of public radio) and teaching at Oregon State College (now OSU), he taught physics and electrical engineering to soldiers at nearby Camp Adair.

My mother writes about canning fruit and jam, making catsup, and baking ham. They bought chicken and beef in bulk, chopped it up themselves, and stored it in a rented locker. My parents only went to Wagner’s – a popular downtown restaurant – a few times a year. Take out and frozen food was non-existent. They rode bicycles, spent evenings reading and with friends, and were involved in their church.

If you’ve read Michael Pollan’s book, “In Defense of Food,” or my article in the Seattle Times for which I interviewed him, you know that one part of his manifesto is: don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize. My next article for the Seattle Times will be about what our ancestors did eat. One thing most of us know: they cooked, and we don’t, not much anyway.

According to the Canadian magazine “Adbusters,” in 1934 families in the UK spent 2.5 hours each day cooking. By 1954, cooking time was down to one hour. By 2010, it is estimated the British will be cooking eight minutes a day. I can’t find comparable figures for us in America, but I’ll keep looking.

We do know that Americans are working more, sleeping less, watching more TV, taking fewer vacations, are more obese, don’t join bowling teams anymore, and are giving up golf. We want to eat at home, but not take the time to cook.

Whatever happened to cooking?