Yes, he occasionally gets on my nerves. But when the great Mark Bittman says stuff like this, all is forgiven (if not forgotten):
I am the least impressive cook you will ever see. I am completely without knife skills, I screw things up all the time. When I’m in the kitchen I’m not obsessively trying to create the perfect dish; I’m trying to put dinner on the table. Comparing yourself to the people who cook on television is like comparing yourself to Andre Agassi. If you can drive you can cook.
If you can drive, you can cook. Yes!
But the converse isn’t necessarily true. I cook pretty well (though, like Bittman, I’m not very impressive to watch in the kitchen). But I’m a horrible driver. I can manage a sharp knife on a cutting board (though with no special skill); but operating heavy machinery at high speeds among other rashly licensed incompetents just stresses me out. In other words, driving well is infinitely harder than cooking a decent meal. I much prefer to get around by my own two feet—and leave long-distance transport to professionals, preferably train operators. In this country, we cede cooking to the pros (from burger flippers to celebrity chefs) and generally take care of our own transportation, in privatized little pods that cavalierly (and inefficiently) burn a titanically potent energy source.
Has anyone noticed that our preferred transportation mode is rather dangerous? In a typical year, there are more than 2 million car crashes in the United States, resulting in more than 40,000 deaths. If similar carnage occurred in the kitchen, the authorities would long since have banned home cooking.
So, um ... down with driving, and up with home cooking! And, uh, up with trains and down with highways! Damn it!
Comments
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Kasandra Griffin Posted 12:05 am
10 Nov 2009
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campaignshoutin Posted 1:11 pm
10 Nov 2009
I seem to recall that when they took the speed limit down to 55 mph in the 70s for oil reasons, we gained the added benefit of 5,000 fewer deaths each year (I could be wrong on the numbers, but the general point is correct, I think). Can't imagine Congress would pass anything like that now, but when you start to think, OK, which 5,000 people should we ask to die this year so we can go 65 mph, it seems rather odd we don't.
By the way, the Agassi quotation was great. Have to keep that one in mind.
Chris
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HealthyHiker Posted 9:18 pm
10 Nov 2009
I share your thoughts almost to a T. I avoid car driving as much as possible for enviro. and safety concerns.
Now, if we could get all of those frequent fliers- including environmental professionals who regularly fly cross country for meetings and conferences- to tone down their plane travels...
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Marla-Family Fresh Cooking Posted 8:02 pm
11 Nov 2009
http://www.familyfreshcooking.com
I am passionate about eating clean, healthy, yummy foods and providing the same for my family. Not only do I love food, but I want to inspire others to create meals from scratch. People rely way too heavily on overly processed, highly sugared and sweetened food (if you wan to call it food.) Not only are they consuming unhealthy calories, but they waste so much. The overly packaged products, transport costs and over use of machinery to get their "food" to the processed shelf stable state is so mindless. Get in the kitchen and cook folks!!! You can do it if you try.
I wish I could minimize the use of my car, but we live in Orange County, the ultimate suburbia. The markets are miles from our home. We spend a great deal of our time in Telluride, CO. When we are there I am thrilled to say that I can spend weeks at a time without getting into a car. We rely on our feet and the public gondola system as transportation. This frees up greater chunks of time for me to cook!!
Not only is Telluride a heavenly place to spend time, it feels so much better to live a more mindful lifestyle......at 10,000 feet.
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