The most common question I get asked when someone finds out I cook is “what recipes do you use?” and the answer I give is typically some variation of me describing how I come up with recipes myself. This is generally followed by a couple nods in agreements, me showing some examples of things I have made, and then finally proceeded by the question “so what recipes did you use?” Well, at least they changed out a word.
Why cooking is such a loaded term
In all seriousness, I get asked these questions all the time and, for many years, I thought this was weird. I felt like I had to repeat myself like a broken record and constantly show pictures before they would really understand my answers. After all that, and maybe even trying some food I made, the light bulb finally clicks when they say “oh, you really do cook.”
I’ve pondered heavily on why this is such a common occurrence. Don’t a lot of people cook? At the very least, doesn’t everyone have to put together a meal at some point? So why is it so shocking when people find out that I (or anyone else for that matter) can cook? Culture and media probably plays the largest role in deep seated perceptions such as this. Cooking is generally pegged as this magical process that can break at any moment, and braving a new trail in a world of recipes is viewed as a route to certain failure more often than not.
In its essence, cooking is just the process required to manufacture sustenance for you to maintain your life. Or in more layman terms, to fill your belly so it can stop growling at you. The difference is that some people may lack the initial knowledge, intuition, and/or creativity, and settle for the simplest methods to satisfy their hunger. This leads to a distinguishable difference in quality in what is cooked (or even avoids cooking altogether). But quality aside, whose really to say where the line is drawn between cooking and not cooking? People often say microwaving isn’t cooking, but what about microwave cakes and processes that utilize a microwave to melt an ingredient. I think this is all unnecessary semantics and everything involving a process with food should be considered cooking to some degree.
That being said, I have noticed a commonality in the public perception of cooking. Most people consider someone is not cooking when he/she prepares a microwave meal by following the directions on the box as that is just following the expressions from some member of the manufacturer; aka the true creator or cook.
How is following any recipe any different
So where is the line drawn when we say the mom that follows recipe A from blog B is an amazing cook, while the son that follows the cup noodles directions can be considered someone who can’t cook to save his life. Why are people so drawn to the moms of the world who know how to cook while these sons are overlooked? One key difference may be the complexity of the aforementioned dishes and their corresponding techniques, but if complexity of the technique employed is used to measure one’s ability to cook, then where does that leave creativity.
If I’m creating a unique dish using cooking that only utilizes a microwave, and the resulting dish tastes better than a complex recipe someone regurgitates, does that make me a better or worse cook? What about if we take the microwave out of the situation and use just raw ingredients? Now was it packaged or processed? How about mixed with anything? The questions can go on and on, but the key is that “cooking” is really a loaded term that disregards individual creativity.
Everything else aside, how would we go about factoring in the creativity of the creator? Cooking would be no different from person to person without creativity. Everyone would be following the steps and rules we call recipes, but all the results would be the same. Creativity’s role is really to fill the gap between what is available to you and the experience of the dish you want to create.
The line between a chef and a cook
Those that bring to life these new experiences in dishes are often given the title of chefs. Chefs are creators at heart and, though the quality and creativity of the resulting food may vary wildly to each person, the process of representing one’s unique influence is what makes them a creator.
Although many don’t think much of this distinction, I think there are those that are catching onto this idea of non-professional chefs. I’ve noticed that, once someone really believes I can cook, they would call me a chef (though some people seem to call anyone that cooks anything a chef). Yes, the group of people who cook a myriad of dishes (cooks) and group that comes up with creative concepts (chefs) may overlap, but the point is that both groups are not measured the same. Cooks are measured by what they can cook and chefs are measured by what food they can come up with. And even if they were measured the same, we should be equally interested in how much their own personal creativity was factored into the food they create as much as the fact that they actually went through the process of creating it.
So maybe the answer to this loaded question of “do you cook?” really boils down to asking the deeper follow-up question: “are you a cook or a chef?”
Epicurean Experience 