![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/6582311051_e7b804862b-e1349365019308.jpeg\" "\\"Sexy")
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Thai crab vegetable salad. Braised pork belly entr\u00e9e. Coconut lime sorbet with a ginger tuile.<\/em><\/p>\n If there\u2019s nothing else we\u2019ve learned from the recent explosion of cooking shows, it\u2019s that food can be downright sexy<\/em>.<\/p>\n My personal favorite is MasterChef<\/em>, where home cooks battle to show what they can do best in the kitchen.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like the American Idol<\/em> of food TV.<\/p>\n But shows like MasterChef<\/em> completely misrepresent home cooking, and make too many people think they can\u2019t ever cook in the first place.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve got a secret to let you in on.<\/p>\n I\u2019d never<\/em> make it past the first round on MasterChef<\/em>, and most of the greatest home cooks in the world never would either.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because home cooking isn\u2019t nearly as sexy as what you\u2019ll see on TV. And that\u2019s a good thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n In my high school class, I was voted \u201cmost artistic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Although I grew up mostly interested in drawing and painting, I\u2019m sure this is the reason I started cooking at such a young age as well.<\/p>\n Starting out with raw ingredients and transforming them through the twin skills of cutting<\/a> and heating<\/a> was an enjoyable experience for me, and is as close to creating great art as you can get.<\/p>\n I think that the elevation of food into an art form is a good thing for several reasons:<\/p>\n But food has been taken way<\/em> past the realm of plain ol\u2019 humble art and into the realm of fancy pants high art.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you know what I\u2019m talking about. Exotic spices and herbs. Fussy plating and presentation. Expensive ingredients and equipment\u2026 pretty much everything you\u2019d see the contestants of MasterChef<\/em> use to win the judges over.<\/p>\n At its worst, arty food is expensive and takes way too much time and energy to prepare. Sure, it may be stylish, but it won\u2019t fill you up the way a simple pot roast would.<\/p>\n And frankly, a trained chef will do a far better job than you any day of the week.<\/p>\n Today, going out to a nice restaurant is not much different than going to an art museum.<\/strong><\/p>\n Like painting and pottery, we humans have elevated a once-basic skill to an artisanal craft that few can master without an enormous investment of time, money, and energy.<\/p>\n If you turn on your TV to MasterChef<\/em>, you\u2019ll see home cooks busting their tails off to create the kinds of creations that you see at art museums\u2013er, I mean restaurants<\/em>\u2013without the formal education or on-the-job training that most successful chefs have.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day, people eat food in order to get energy and survive. All other benefits are secondary.<\/strong><\/p>\n Until very recently in human civilization, the food that was prepared and eaten at home was quite humble. A few ingredients cooked simply, resulting in a tasty and healthy meal.<\/p>\n But it was a skill that was passed down informally from generation to generation, and the recent success of the processed-food industry means that we are slowly forgetting how to cook at home.<\/p>\n As a result, now our best look at home cooking from scratch comes from TV shows. It\u2019s very sexy, but incredibly intimidating. So we say, \u201cI couldn\u2019t do that,\u201d and throw in another microwave dinner.<\/strong><\/p>\n No matter what your political beliefs are, I\u2019m sure you\u2019d agree that President Obama is a very busy man.<\/p>\n No matter how much you have on your plate, it\u2019s almost guaranteed that the President of the United States of America has much more, especially in an age where communication across the world is immediate and everywhere.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with Vanity Fair<\/em><\/a>, he let on how he is able to get so much accomplished, and one passage in particular I think is important for understanding why home cooking shouldn\u2019t be sexy:<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,\u201d (Obama) said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to pare down decisions. I don\u2019t want to make decisions about what I\u2019m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.\u201d He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one\u2019s ability to make further decisions. It\u2019s why shopping is so exhausting. \u201cYou need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can\u2019t be going through the day distracted by trivia.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For most of us, food is primarily a practical matter.<\/p>\n And every bit of attention you put towards making an elaborate meal depletes willpower that you could use elsewhere.<\/p>\n Most of us have too much else going on in our lives that is frankly more important than being able to throw together a restaurant-ready meal every night.<\/strong><\/p>\n And that\u2019s fine.<\/em><\/p>\n You can be a black belt kitchen hacker<\/a> without being an amateur chef ready for prime time television.<\/p>\n There are fundamental differences between home cooking and restaurant cooking.<\/strong><\/p>\n The primary aim of one is to keep you alive, the other is to create a museum-ready masterpiece.<\/p>\n In a culture that has broken the link between generations of learning how to cook, most people look to things like MasterChef<\/em> to get an idea of what home cooking is really about.<\/p>\n But trying to cook like a reality show contestant will drive you insane. Trying to cook like your great-grandmother won\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n The best home cooking has three characteristics:<\/strong><\/p>\nFood as Art<\/h2>\n
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Food as Physical Necessity<\/h2>\n
The Mindset of Highly Effective Home Cooks<\/h2>\n
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The Truth About Home Cooking<\/h2>\n
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