How Do We Make Cooking Cool?
February 13, 2011 at 8:31 pm 3 comments
I spent all day yesterday at TedXManhattan‘s first “Changing the Way We Eat” conference. Speakers from environmental activist Laurie David (yep, Larry David’s ex) to SlowFood‘s Josh Viertel gave presentations on many aspects of the food movement. The ambitious crowd of speakers and spectators were there for one reason: to fix the way we feed ourselves, for the benefit of our health and our environment.
The conference was buzzing with energy… not only because of the speakers but because the audience was “hand-selected” to include individuals passionate about different aspects of food justice. Speaking with my fellow attendees was just as exciting and enriching as hearing from the speakers themselves.
Going to a conference like this — with somewhat like-minded individuals who read the same information you do, and move in the same circles you do — forces you, in a way, to define your niche, your “mission.” It was really exciting to see how kept finding myself moving closer to an idea of what that is.
Basically: I want to make cooking cool. Because if cooking is cool, then the time spent in the kitchen, gathering ingredients, researching recipes, and yes — even the money spent buying ingredients — will seem worth it. I believe that — with exceptions, of course — it’s not that people don’t have time to cook. It’s that they don’t value time spent cooking. We are spending four hours a day watching television, or up to seven hours a day “surfing” the internet. So I believe that the trick to getting people to eat healthier is to get them to care so much about cooking that they choose to spend the time making food rather than sitting on the couch watching reality TV.
So how do we make cooking cool? How do we get little boys and little girls to ask their parents to spend time in the kitchen? How do we make individuals WANT to take on that knowledge and those skills?
I think the answer lies in pop culture. People are already watching endless hours of cooking on TV. But they’re still not cooking themselves. Why not?
These are the questions I’m hoping to answer…
Entry filed under: Food Policy, Marketing. Tags: Changing the Way We Eat, Cooking is Cool, TedXManhattan.
1.
Jesse | February 15, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I think one of the biggest issues is one that Bittman and Ruhlman try to address pretty frequently: cooking is seen as challenging and time consuming by many people. I bake my own bread – takes about 20 mins of total labor, but two days for the whole process, and people seem to think that’s unthinkably complex. Roasting a whole chicken is another thing that people think of as too difficult to consider doing at home, despite the fact that it is dead easy.
I think there has to be a way to get people to realize that cooking doesn’t have to be an art or a science, it can just be a pleasure.
2.
Cindy Sardo | March 15, 2011 at 1:45 am
Have you heard of the Cooking’s Cool book series that teaches kids and their families that cooking is cool? This might be one fun and engaging way to making cooking cool.
3.
Trish | April 8, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Perhaps you need guerilla cooking. I don’t know exactly what that would be, but it’s certainly added a cache of coolness to gardening as in guerilla gardening. Or maybe you need to have a “cook in” to protest bad eating habits and food deserts.