COOKING IS ONE of the most interesting and worthwhile things we humans do, writes Michael Pollan, a food journalist I have come to deeply respect. It is pure serendipity that I stumbled upon this in the introduction to his book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, just as I had been pondering about how much time and effort I put into cooking on a weekly basis—time and energy that, many have argued, could be channelled into activities that might better serve me: rest, a side hustle, entertainment, a more exciting social life…
And yet, each weekend, I spend hours making food. You see, once you get down to it, you quickly realise that cooking is a lot more than just stirring a pot next to a stove. First, you plan. You do an audit of what you have in your refrigerator and you write up a list of ingredients you need from the grocery store. Then, you physically go to the grocery store, resist from grabbing things you don’t need (chips, ice cream, it’s always something ultra-processed that I crave) and you cook. After that, the part I have a love/hate relationship with, is cleaning up—the mountain of dishes and cooking pots and utensils, scrubbing the stove until it’s squeaky clean, wiping down the backsplash, vacuuming and finally mopping.
