Men in the Kitchen - Fact or Fiction

I would like to talk about the role men play in the kitchen. It is generally believed that women do most of the cooking, but funny enough the chefs in India and here tend to be mostly men. But what about in the average family? Do men play an equal role in cooking? Generally, I have discovered that men either do the majority of the cooking in the family or very little. Raising my children, I held home economics classes for them where I taught them how to cook. My son is only two years older than the twins and enjoyed making most of the dishes when he was younger. He made the best cookies I've ever tasted. As he got older he stopped cooking and baking except on rare occasions and specialized in two dishes: shrimp pasta and nachos. I tried to teach him how to make a smoothie the other day and he said "I like it better when somebody makes it for me." In that one statement he summarized the findings of a study on instant cake mixes. They made instant cake mixes where you only had to add water--but they didn't sell very well. Research showed that it was because people associated baking with love. If all you had to do was add water, it wasn't an act of love to make it. They changed the mixes so you had to add eggs and milk and they produced a winner because the person was adding the love to the recipe. I think men sometimes choose not to cook for the same reason why many women choose not to learn how to repair a car -- because they feel cared for when someone else does it. I would like to encourage men to take a more active interest in the kitchen, I don't mean you have to cook all the time but pick something you think you'd enjoy. When my husband and I were dating, I told him "I don't bake". Indians generally don't bake and it wasn't a skill I'd learned or cared to learn. My husband on the other hand loved desserts more than than the meal. I said I'll cook and you can learn how to bake if it's that important to you. It was that important to him, although he could't cook at all, he decided to bake. He went to the library and learned how to bake delicious desserts. He made this a family activity by baking with the kids. They made a guitar cake and he baked our wedding cake. He planned and designed the cake on his computer, made a test model and then made the real thing, including every rose that cascaded down. He still makes profiteroles for us once a year and we devour them, burning the roof of our mouth because we don't wait for them to cool down. What's my point? Whether you're male or female, don't rely on someone else to do all your cooking. Get involved, making love in the kitchen is incredibly rewarding as you will experience when people devour your creations. Yours in food and health, Tara Hamilton tarahamilton@me.com http://www.wholefarmsonline.org/ Follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ReviveCafe, Shop at our Organic Produce Market or let us feed you raw, living, vegan, gluten free, soy free, sugar free vegetarian food at 1807 N. Broadway St. near Iron Bird Lofts. If you want to be on our tv show about how to make healthy food "Making Love in the Kitchen"please email us your story or idea.