by Neil Nicol

Created on: January 31, 2009

Cooking down through the ages has been a form of expression, very similar to painting with a brush on canvas. One could take ten accomplished cooks and ask them all to follow the same essential recipe yet end up with ten quite distinctly unique dishes at the end of the process. Different cooks would add a touch of their personal flair to the dish, thereby not reproducing a carbon copy of the author's creation but their own personal interpretation of it.

Technology is probably the biggest problem facing cooking and contributing to it becoming a lost art form. Food processors, blenders and all sorts of automated devices are making the preparation of such as batter or dough an exact science as opposed to a creative art form. We even now have bread machines, where in the past the kneading of the dough was not only a very skilled part of a baker's work but a therapeutic activity for many cooks.

Microwave ovens, however, have to the biggest contributory factor to this crisis. There is no skill involved in judging the cooking time of a dish, checking on it perhaps at regular intervals, adjusting the oven temperature as we go along. Instructions are provided to "cook" an item for a period of time which is specific to the exact minute at a temperature which cannot really be varied.

These devices are creating what is essentially a lazy culture when it comes to cooking. More and more members of particularly the younger generation are thinking why should they spend so much time in the kitchen cooking meals from scratch when there are such a host of devices to do it for them. They would rather be checking e-mails, social networking or chatting online. Far more interesting than slaving over a hot stove for hours at a time!

The whole point of this trend is that although cooks of yesteryear did in many cases love their craft and express their artistic side through cooking, they essentially did not have a choice. If they didn't cook, they and their families didn't eat. What is happening in modern times are that people do have a choice and those who do not have a natural, in-built love of cooking are simply choosing not to do it.

I do not believe that cooking will become a lost art form, in the sense that there are still a percentage of people who do love the activity. What is happening is that these people are becoming a rarefied breed in society and the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps the way we should look upon it is that if we are one of those people, or have one of them in our own household, we should count our blessings and be grateful that we can still experience cooking as an art form and enjoy our food at its very creative best.

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