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Image: © Briana Blair
I posted yesterday about how much I love that Eric can not only cook and cook well, he enjoys it. He has no problem with or shame in cooking. He loves good food and knows how to make it. Unfortunately, a lot of men don’t share his liberated views.
I still can’t figure out why men haven’t broken themselves free of the ridiculous idea that cooking real food is something that only women and homosexuals (supposedly because they’re like women) do. I realize that for much of history women were expected to take care of the home while men worked. They cooked and cleaned. It wasn’t that men couldn’t do these things, they simply chose to make those the things that women did.
Fast forward to the present where both men and women work, where both genders can be single parents. Why aren’t men cooking yet? And here’s the real sticker for my brain: For ages, MEN have been the world-famous chefs. MEN ran restaurants. MEN controlled the food industry. They still have a higher presence than women. Bartolomeo Scappi was credited with the first cookbook. Auguste Escoffier revolutionized French cooking. How about Gordon Ramsay or Robert Irvine? Call them gay, I dare you.
And yet men still won’t get in the kitchen. Some simple points, from my perspective:
Everyone should eat good, healthy food. You should know how to make said food at home.
There isn’t always going to be someone to take care of you. Learn to do it yourself.
Cooking is a skill, skills aren’t gender-based. Anyone can get good at anything.
Women like men who can cook well. Actually, most people like someone who can cook well.
Of course, I’m not letting the ladies off the hook either. Personally, I don’t think there is any excuse at all for ANYONE to not be able to cook. Cooking can be an art, but it starts with a skill. Anyone can learn a skill. Maybe you’ll never be a world famous cuisine master, but you should be able to put food on the table that didn’t come out of a box or can.
I do believe that good food is one of the things at the heart of healthy, happy living. Everyone should be able to cook a healthy, filling meal. And there’s something wonderful in knowing that the delicious food you’re enjoying and sustaining your body with is something that you brought into being with your own hands.
