by Stephen Poulitsis

Created on: August 28, 2010   Last Updated: August 29, 2010

When the latest woman in your life decides to invite you for a home cooked dinner and furtively hides the take away boxes in the washing machine, you should heed the warning signs when she suddenly asks you how the oven works. Discovering that the meal she slaved over for hours as a sign of her affection and the way to your heart, actually came from the local restaurant, can be a disappointment when you discover her machinations on the kitchen front. Why didn't she just fess up and admit that cooking simply isn’t in her repertoire of tricks?

Sadly cooking is becoming a lost art which could leave a great proportion of the nation helpless if the government banned microwaves. There is no point in being intimate with the goings on in Hell’s Kitchen if you have no idea how to boil an egg. TV chefs provide entertainment as people tuck into frozen microwave meals and food which requires little more than the addition of boiling water. 

Celebrity chefs encourage couch potato lifestyles as they replace actual cooking with entertainment about cooking. How the taste buds of the nation must have wilted to willingly eat processed meals comprised of sauce covered cardboard, whilst tucked up in front of the TV in food voyeurism.

Whatever happened to families passing secret recipes down through generations? Now the recipes are found on the side of packets which suggest ten things to do with a packet of instant mash, or three different ways to heat a frozen dinner. There is a reluctance to cook as many think it takes too much time, but that isn’t necessarily the case unless you are out to impress with the sort of dinner party which will lead to a nervous breakdown.

Fortunately men are leading the way back into the kitchen. Cooking is no longer seen as women’s work and men can find ways to be creative when they demand more than the freezer reveals. Eating out every day loses its enticement when the costs add up. There really is nothing difficult about following a recipe or throwing things together in order to replicate the fantastic meal a chef cooked up for some ludicrous price which you can cook for a fraction of the cost at home.

Cooking is a skill which people need, from the guy who relies on his neighbors generosity when his wife is away, to the family who is struggling to eat on a budget. It becomes an art when it is enjoyed rather than seen primarily as a chore, and when tasty dishes begin to emerge from the kitchen. Cooking is becoming a lost art for many, but there will always be some who are inspired to learn the art and become the master chefs of their own kitchens.

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