Why do you cook?

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BakedPotato

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jun 9, 2014
Messages
6
Location
Chicago
Hey all!

I personally believe that food is a direct channel to someone's mind and culture. and through cooking different foods, I can learn more about myself, test my limits and broaden my horizon.

As a designer, sometimes our results (product) can often be very subjective and lines can get blurry. But the results for cooking is very honest, which I always find comforting.

So yea! What does cooking mean to you guys? and how does your cooking affect the ones around you?
 
I'm really not into lofty reasons to cook. The bottom line real reason I cook is because I love my own cooking. People will often say to me that I must love cooking. Actually it's not so much that I really like cooking, but my own food just tastes the best to me.
 
Hey all!

I personally believe that food is a direct channel to someone's mind and culture. and through cooking different foods, I can learn more about myself, test my limits and broaden my horizon.

As a designer, sometimes our results (product) can often be very subjective and lines can get blurry. But the results for cooking is very honest, which I always find comforting.

So yea! What does cooking mean to you guys? and how does your cooking affect the ones around you?
Why do I cook? Because I'd be bl**dy hungry if I didn't:LOL:

Seriously though

-I find cooking a creative pastime
-I get pleasure from cooking for friends.
-As I'm getting older I think the mental discipline involved in following a recipe, weighing ingredients, writing the shopping list and going out to buy the stuff, remembering to switch off the oven, etc., has got to be good brain exercise.
-There are dishes that I think I can do better than the big manufacturers.
-Cooking at home is a lot more economical than buying food in.
-I feel very self-satisfied when I have stuff in the freezer or 'fridge that I've made myself.
-Home baking is a very good way of raising money for charities.
-I get pleasure from making and eating dishes that my mother and my grandmother made when I was young. Now they're gone it's a way of keeping them around me.

Heavens! Did I actually write that last one. I didn't realise I was so sentimental
 
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I cook because I enjoy it and because I much, much prefer homemade non-preservative laced food. I like to know how much salt is in our food, along with its nutritional value. I also loathe paying for packaged inferior "convenience/fast" foods that line our market shelves.

I am a creative person and cooking is an outlet that allows my creativity to come to the fore. Sometimes my creations are awesome, occasionally (but rarely) they're a bust.

I've been blessed to have had two husbands who enjoyed/enjoy my cooking efforts, which is another plus for me. I truly enjoy cooking for others and having them appreciate the end results.

But, basically, I cook because we have to eat. It's just that if I can make it good, then all the better.
 
Why do I cook? Because I'd be bl**dy hungry if I didn't:LOL:

Seriously though

-I find cooking a creative pastime
-I get pleasure from cooking for friends.
-As I'm getting older I think the mental discipline involved in following a recipe, weighing ingredients, writing the shopping list and going out to buy the stuff, remembering to switch off the oven, etc., has got to be good brain exercise.
-There are dishes that I think I can do better than the big manufacturers.
-Cooking at home is a lot more economical than buying food in.
-I feel very self-satisfied when I have stuff in the freezer or 'fridge that I've made myself.
-Home baking is a very good way of raising money for charities.
-I get pleasure from making and eating dishes that my mother and my grandmother made when I was young. Now they're gone it's a way of keeping them around me.

Heavens! Did I actually write that last one. I didn't realize I was so sentimental

Actually, it's one of the many reasons you're a "keeper". ;)
 
I cook because a long time ago I heard that if I don't eat I could die.
 
Some folks live to cook. Others cook to live. Right now I am in the latter group. If I was wealthy enough, right now I would hire a cook and crawl into bed to stay and request all meals to be able to be taken in through a straw. Preferably ice cream shakes. :angel:
 
1. I love to eat, therefore I love to cook.

2. I feel fortunate to have so many lovely ingredients available to me. Honestly, how could you not be inspired by the abundance we have at our neighborhood grocery shops. I want to play with them all, muaha, muahahah.....sorry got carried away.
 
Sometimes I wonder myself... why cook? Oh, sorry, it was "Why do you cook?" Most times I find it to be an enjoyable activity and other times, the opposite. My having two minds on the topic probably has something to do with the number of years I've been doing it.
 
Hey all!

I personally believe that food is a direct channel to someone's mind and culture. and through cooking different foods, I can learn more about myself, test my limits and broaden my horizon.

As a designer, sometimes our results (product) can often be very subjective and lines can get blurry. But the results for cooking is very honest, which I always find comforting.

So yea! What does cooking mean to you guys? and how does your cooking affect the ones around you?

It just kills the neighbors when the wood smoke from one of my cookers drifts in their direction. It also kills them when they see me doing a crawfish boil or steaming up some crabs.

The reason we cook for the most part is that none of the restaurants around us, can do a better job, especially seafood, German (there are none) and Italian.
 
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Where I live, it's the only way to get the food quality I desire. Also, it satisfies part of my creative side. Third, I love to serve good food to my family, and guests. Lastly, it's less expensive than eating poor, or mediocre food at the restaurants around here.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Ya gotta eat! I'm pretty creative, and enjoy making all sorts of things, food being one of those things.
 
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-I get pleasure from making and eating dishes that my mother and my grandmother made when I was young. Now they're gone it's a way of keeping them around me.

I think MC summed it up for me.

These days my diet is so limited that I really can't call what I do cooking, I just burn meat and toss salad! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
There are many reasons why I cook:-

- To make a meal the way I like it.
- To see what can be made of ingredients I already have.
- Largely to try out recipes though and this is because:-
(a) it's like bringing a restaurant into your kitchen
(b) you get to bake your cake and eat it!
(c) to test recipes and, if successful, keep them for guests

 
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So many reasons.

Gotta cook to eat.
Dad was a chef so I was exposed to it early in life.
It's always been something that captured my interest. Watching Julia Child on PBS started it all. Then other early shows.
I was not allowed to cook when I was married as my ex considered it her responsibility. Divorce intervened and I had the need, the desire and the opportunity to cook. I immersed myself in learning to cook.
My sister taught me how to cook some of my mom's recipes.
I do a pretty good job so get a lot of positive feedback for my efforts.
My SO is happy I own the kitchen and put a good meal on the table every night when she gets home from work.
I enjoy teaching/helping others. My daughters call for help. Even my sister, a great cook, calls me from time to time.
 
I'm really not into lofty reasons to cook. The bottom line real reason I cook is because I love my own cooking. People will often say to me that I must love cooking. Actually it's not so much that I really like cooking, but my own food just tastes the best to me.

Ditto!
 
I cook to eat, if we ate out every night, we'd be broke and REALLY much fatter :LOL:

I bake for the joy of it. Baking is a great anxiety tamer for me. I love creating new recipes or reworking existing ones. I love the reaction when I bake for people.
 
Our youth group "interviewed" me in their weekly spotlight several years ago and the first question was an obvious one considering I had gone to culinary school, was catering and a baker.

"What is your favourite food?" My answer astonished almost everyone in the room - "Anything that someone else makes". I, unlike Kayelle and Merster, don't like eating my own food. It is not that I think it is bad, I have just been working with it, taste testing it, etc. and it may be a dish I have made a hundred times so I am just plain bored with it.

I cook/bake to please others, to relieve stress, have fun experimenting, and sometimes to make some money so I can go out and hire someone else to cook for me! :LOL:

Yup, the real me exposed! ;)
 
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