A word to the wise....

This is how it is. I love food. Have for years. Yeah, I know, so does everyone, don’t they? Food is the new black and all that. “We ALL love food… whatevah….” 

But you don’t understand. I’ve always loved it. Not just now that it’s become popular.

I feel like someone who’s been following and supporting… let’s say … a band, a not very well known and obscure band, for years and years. Who’s made mixed tapes of their music and stayed up to video their film clips on Rage at 3 o’clock in the morning. Who kissed the poster of their androgynous lead singer secretly when they were a little bit drunk. And suddenly after years of dedication and obsession, one day EVERYONE loves them. And people are coming up to me going, “oh my God! Have you heard of (insert name of band)? They are just AMAAAZING!”

Whereupon, I smile politely and say, ‘Yes. I have.’

I am ashamed of my bitter heart. Food belongs to no one. It’s not a fad or a fashion. It’s a blessing and necessity of life. We need food to survive. We have to have it. And yet this weird renaissance of food madness, well… it kinda shits me. And it shits me that I’m all uppity about food that its surge into popular culture shits me.

You see, for years, women have been slaving over hot stoves, woks and tandoors, turning out the most amazing food for their loved ones with merely a ripple of appreciation for their effort or their talents. Apart from other women. This secret sorority has operated quietly, toiling under the pretense that when a woman cooks it is merely one form of her household duties, like dusting or having sex with her husband. Women have swapped recipes, complimented one another and exchanged secrets while those who ate her food patted her on the head and said, ‘What’s for dessert?’ When a woman cooks, it’s ‘cooking’.

But… put a man in the kitchen and it is not cooking, it is CUISINE. By rights of his having a willy and having the balls big enough not to feel emasculated by doing women’s work, and by taming beasts and flora with steel blades and forging them in fire… we have the serious side of cooking.

Case in point: who are the 3 judges on Mastercook? George, Matt and The Other One. Three blokes with the occasional female guest. The people deemed the most qualified and deserving to sit in judgement are men. They throw a woman in when the kiddies are in – you know, cos it’s with kiddies and the ladies are in there for the soft touch.

But let it be known in this very public (albeit not very widely read forum), that I think guys who cook are FREAKING HOT. See how tormented I am?

Moving on…..

Not only am I miffed by the whole, ‘women’s cooking ain’t as good’ attitude, but also by the fact that because its now on TV and dominated by men, cooking and food are now being taken seriously.

Again, let me stress how wonderful it is to have people of all ages now really interested in food. My question is: what was everyone thinking before the blokes on the telly told us to do so? Because food is something you prepare to nourish the body and cooking is the ultimate trust exercise. Serving food to your family, friends, guests, customers, whomever, is a huge responsibility because it has a direct correlation to the physical effects of the food on each person’s body.

So it is in the spirit of the love for all the people I’ve cooked for, some I’ve known well, some not so well, that I have begun this blog.

I love food. Pretty soon I’ll post some of the food I made and we can really get to know each other.

Thanks for reading my first introductory post. Hope you’ll be back.