Many middle-aged folks are just now realizing that cooking is an essential skill. With the rise of social media and a drop in educational cooking shows, it seems they’ve missed this lesson until recently. While food-related content is everywhere, solid advice on how to actually cook isn’t as easy to find.
Take Julia Child, for example. She played a significant role in helping many people, including myself, gain confidence in the kitchen. Watching her shows was like having a supportive mentor, even though I never met her. Her influence made cooking feel approachable, much like how programs like “Sesame Street” taught literacy. By five or six years old, I was trusted to chop eggs for tuna salad. Eventually, cooking from scratch became a favorite hobby of mine.
Over the years, I learned from various cooking personalities like Nigella Lawson and Martha Stewart. Each brought a new perspective to my culinary journey. For instance, Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” delved into food science, while Lawson’s relaxed style made me understand the joy of cooking without stress.
Now, aspiring cooks are often left to navigate a sea of online content alone. They can scroll through influencer blogs or platforms like TikTok for countless recipes, but the guidance is hit or miss. Cooking shows today focus more on competition than on teaching. Shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Chopped” emphasize drama over education, which sometimes leaves viewers feeling intimidated.
The decline of home economics classes in schools has contributed to this gap. Once a fixture in American education, these classes have dwindled since the 2000s, partly due to the focus on standardized testing. A 2018 report from NPR highlighted this worrying trend, showing that fewer students have the opportunity to learn essential life skills. With the shift in educational priorities, many young people miss out on gaining confidence in the kitchen.
Cooking was once showcased on channels like the Food Network to teach viewers practical skills. Today, many of those programs have transitioned into contests, sidelining instruction in favor of entertainment. This evolution leads to an alarming reality: Culinary programming now often seems geared toward consumption rather than skill development.
Social media has become a double-edged sword. On one hand, it provides access to hashtags like #FoodTok, filled with creative recipe ideas. On the other hand, algorithm-driven content can limit exploration, creating a more passive consumption of cooking concepts. In a recent article by John Herrman in New York Magazine, he discusses how platforms have shifted from connecting us to people we know to feeding us curated content. This altered focus can detract from the joy of making and sharing food.
It’s crucial to remember that cooking is an experience meant to be shared. Many court celebrities in culinary shows but can overlook the genuine learning aspect that once flourished. The communication of passion and the creativity of cooking used to shine in earlier programs, making them relatable. Nowadays, the intimidation factor can overshadow the fun of simply cooking for pleasure.
In this noisy landscape of flashy cooking content, we might long for the simple, comforting lessons of the past. The connection to cooking often starts with curiosity and the drive to create. While resources are present, the focus should return to fostering that initial desire to learn and be hands-on in the kitchen.
So, as we look at current cooking media, it’s worth considering what we value most: the thrill of competition or the genuine joy of cooking? Perhaps we can strike a balance that celebrates the artistry of food while promoting the skills necessary to enjoy it. Cooking can be an empowering journey, one that many still yearn to embark on with the right guidance and inspiration.
