Why Do You Cook?

[creative]

You may all find me perverse - but I eat very little of what I cook. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy food. But I think I enjoy creating it (by which I mean the whole process from inventing a recipe through to plating it up) even more enjoyable. I make a lot of meals for the people I am with and very often I don't eat eat them at all. Tonight for example, I made a tarragon chicken, mushroom leek and butter bean pie with home-made rough puff pastry for my partner and son and a separate smaller pie with chicken style Quorn for my daughter. I didn't eat any of that (far too calorific for me). Besides, I had a lot of tasting of the filling to ensure it was seasoned correctly. I'm not hungry yet. Later, I'll have a poached egg on toast later with harissa and a mixed salad.

Well that helps to explain why you have kept your figure! (I couldn't quite work it out, given your interest in food and cooking!)

I must admit that when I cook for others, it has a dampening effect on my appetite...maybe to spend so much time around food has a satiating effect.

 

[Ken Natton]

You may all find me perverse - but I eat very little of what I cook.

You see, that is where you and I are complete opposites. What you have, or at least what it would seem you have, is an appreciative audience. Which is exactly what I lack. If I didn’t eat the food I cook, I would be making food to dump it in the caddy. That’s not completely true of course, my wife does like several things I do, the problem is her – it seems to me excessive – idea of the unhealthiness of dishes. Welsh Rarebit, for example. If I make it, she will eat it, and I’m pretty sure she does like it, but she wears a scowl on her face and makes it plain that she considers it the very work of the devil. Actually, she doesn’t like me eating any cheese, which is a bit of a problem ‘cause I love the stuff.

And my mother, she is the one person who does offer me occasional comments of genuine appreciation of stuff I have cooked. Yeah, I know mothers have to say that, but I’m not convinced it is entirely delusional of me to believe that she actually does enjoy some of my cooking. The problem with my mother, of course, is her horror at anything being at all expensive. If I told her I was going to do turbot, she would say, “oh that sounds nice”. If I told her the price of it, the ear ache from her lecture would last a week.

And the older of the two teenagers is actually open to trying things and sometimes does genuinely enjoy some good dishes. The trouble is, he can’t stop himself looking at his younger brother’s plate and convincing himself that he is missing out on not having the bland, generic, everyday nonsense that is the only stuff the younger teenager will eat.

So that is why, the one chance I get to cook some things unfettered and with hope of getting some genuine appreciation is when we have guests. Which isn’t often but does happen sometimes.

 

[Morning Glory]

What you have, or at least what it would seem you have, is an appreciative audience.

I read your post with great interest. The whole issue of trying to please all of the people all of the time is very difficult and more often than not the 'cook' will default to the lowest common denominator, which often turns out to be bland cooking (not to spicy, not too fatty, not too many herbs etc). I am cooking currently for four (me, grown up son, grown up daughter, partner). When I stay with my close friend in Essex (every few weeks or so I stay a week) , I'm cooking for me and him and we sometimes have dinner guests.

Here, I am catering for a son who won't eat fish or anything with coriander, a daughter who is pescatarian but doesn't like anything with chilli, mashed potatoes, mushrooms or tofu and a partner who will eat almost anything unless its meat that needs chewing (his teeth are shot). My friend will eat almost anything. Some (most?) of the dishes you will see of mine on the Forum have been made in a portion for one or two and my partner will eat them for lunch. That way I can experiment with things the others won't eat.

Usually when I cook for the evening meal I either make a vegetarian dish for everyone or a dish which I 'bifurcate' - for example last night I made a leek, butterbean, mushroom and chicken pie. I started of by softening the leeks in butter, added flour to the pan to make a roux and then some vegetable stock and milk to make the sauce, then stirred in the drained butterbeans and some dried tarragon. This was then divided into two parts. To one part I added mushrooms which had been cooked in a little oil and pieces of chopped cooked chicken (leftovers). To the other part I added Quorn chicken-style pieces. Then I put them into two baking dishes and topped with home-made pastry. So I ended up pleasing everyone!