by Ron James

Created on: June 23, 2008   Last Updated: June 26, 2008

In the delightful animated feature film "Ratatouille," fictional chef Gusteau writes a cookbook based on the premise that "Anybody Can Cook." Better Homes and Gardens magazine has actually published a cookbook of a similar name. So it must be true, right?

Well, let's define and refine the term "cook." Webster's definition of the intransitive verb "cook" says: "to prepare food for eating especially by means of heat." Sounds pretty simple. So, essentially, anybody with a box of matches can cook?

It's easy! You open a soup can, you pour the contents into a pan or bowl, add water and either turn the knob that activates the burner or set the time and press "start", and, viola, by strict definition, you're cooking! But are you really?

In the last fifty years or so, we have become a culture of non-cooks. Open the blue box, dump the dried pasta in the water, add milk and butter to the orange cheese-flavored stuff, stir it all together and serve it to your family under the guise of macaroni and cheese. Or, if you're too busy to go to all that trouble, they make the same stuff in a little cup that you can simply pop into the microwave. Unless, of course, you'd rather just take it out of the freezer and warm it up. And do notice that on most frozen food packages, they admonish the stupidest among us to "cook before eating." (See Webster's definition of "cook.")

But is this cooking? No. It's minimal preparation of food or food-like substances in order to achieve basic sustenance. "Cooking" is about taking the time and making the effort to prepare and blend ingredients for flavor and balance. It's more than satisfying the body's basic nutritional requirements and most of what is prepackaged today barely meets that criterion. Cooking is a creative art, and, like most art forms, it edifies both the creator and the consumer.

Anybody can cook? I don't know. But everybody should learn. Learn for the sake of self-sufficiency, if for no other reason. I am bone weary of hearing about men who expect, nay, demand, that their women have their food on the table waiting for them. Whatsamatta, Goomba? Something wrong with your hands? You wanna eat? Cook! I can cook as well as any woman and better than most. And I started doing it when I was seven years old. I have never in my adult life had to depend on anybody to put a meal, and a damn good one, on my table for me. You want to be a big, macho man who can do anything? Learn how to cook.

And then there's economy. Hey, there's nothing wrong

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