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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
The issue I have is more the raising of the simple act of cooking to some kind of art form. There are multiple cookery programs (in the US even a whole channel) dedicated to this, and the deification of certain cooks. An obsession amongst those who see themselves as a part of this movement to eat things "in season" even though with modern farming and transport it is no longer any cheaper to do so. People spending money on expensive ingredients that they cannot appreciate the difference in.
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Who says you can’t appreciate the difference? Let’s look at a tomato that was grown a 1000 miles away and then was harvested while still green so that when it finally lands in your grocery store it is over-ripe and starting to rot if you don’t cook it in a day. Compare that to a tomato that was picked out of a garden a few days before (or that morning) and sold to you fresh at your local farmer’s market. I know I can taste the difference between the two and I know it makes my meals taste better because of the ingredients.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
The fact is that food preparation is a simple act that people have performed for themselves and their families for all human history. To me, there is nothing artistic in it, nor any particular skill. I find it simply laughable that someone will pay £100 to eat a Michelin starred restaurant and come home hungry because all they've had is tiny portions of "gourmet" food.
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I still want to know what Michelin starred restaurant you ate at. I seriously don’t think you have every eaten fine dining food before, I still stand that all you know about food is from the TV and movies. I'd explain to you about tasting meuns or sampler meuns, but I doubt you would understand.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
The purpose of food preparation is to:
Create food that will taste nice, do your health some good, and satisfy your basic requirmnt to fuel your body
Nothing else. It doesnt matter how it looks, it doesnt matter how much money you spend on it, it doesnt matter what "beautiful" ingredients you use and then make poetic comments about.
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You want things to “taste nice” but you don’t want to use any quality ingredients. You want it to be healthy, but you want everything from a can or processed. I think you need to hop off the fence and pick a side. You seem to want it cheap, healthy, tasty, AND simply prepared. You don't always get all 4 of those.
Eating with your eyes is a huge part of cooking, I want my food to look good and taste good. Do want I a crapton of stuff on my plate I can’t eat? No. Would I like it arranged on the plate to look good and not like I just stood in line for the chow line and someone just dumped it on my plate? Yes. Then again, you are only seeing plates from Top Chef or whatever Gordon Rasmey is making someone cook today.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
There should be a war against this foodie movenment, but not from vegatarians, but from ordinary working class people who simply want to eat ordinary food. Imagine if there was this kind of hero worship of cleaners, and big hotels and restaurants had celebrity "chief cleaners" and we had to tolerate a TV show a night listening to how they did the ironing, the £800 hight tech hoover they needed; people got together on week nights to scrub the floor together and swap tips on which detergent they use...
Whats the difference? Cooking and cleaning are both pieces of housework, requiring an equal amount of skill and "art".
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You have never worked in a restaurant in your life, have you? Hell, have you ever cooked anything in your life? When you make statements like that, I wonder if you have even stepped into a kitchen to cook a single meal.
You need to read this.
Stop watching TV cooking shows and read about real chefs. Not that fucking wanker Gordon Ramsay, I mean a real chef. The one who taught Rasemy (and made him cry in the corner during service hours) and was the first (and youngest) BRITISH chef to win 3 Michelin stars. Read it then look at what Marco is doing now with British food. Look at how he is trying get rid of the reputation that a British meal is the worst meal on the planet. Read about a real chef, not this TV bullshit that you seem to be spoon-fed on.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Let's get back to the recognition that following a recipe requires about as much skill as cleaning the shower. That every one of these so called masterchefs is simply a food maker. What they do is no harder than a kid who works at Subway making a sandwich. They might have more expensive ingredients and more complex recipes, but its the same process.
And at the end of the day, your subway sandwich probably tastes just as nice as your poached quail egg with asparagus foam and thrice cooked mushroom bathed in the essence in the truffle oil and saffron and blah blah blah.... and is a lot cheaper and more filling.
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I love how you compare two completely different levels of food preparation and think they are the same. They are not. They are not even in the same ballpark. It’s like comparing a 8-9 year old little league team to the professional all-star team (sub in football or some other sport). Yes, the 9 year olds can play the game, but they can’t play as well as the All-Stars. Is it the same sport? Yes. Is there a skill difference? Oh fuck yeah. Are there people that will watch both the little league and the all-stars and still enjoy the sport? Yes. Are there people that will only watch professional sports because they want to see real players playing the sport? Yes. That’s the difference. People pay for professionals to cook their food. Some places, it’s just to be seen at the up-incoming trendy restaurants. Some places, it’s because the food is fucking worth it.
There are chefs/cooks that have your attitude (pre-you leaving the forum a few weeks ago) where they think they are the greatest motherfuckers to ever cook and all those “chefs” on TV can kiss their ass, because they know how to cook REAL food and none of that shit you see on TV. They usually crash and burn fast, because they don’t abide to the basic rules of cooking or they just cook tasteless crap.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Ok, yes.... I do understand that the "cash crop" economy, while enriching certain local farmers, isnt the best for ordinary working people in a lot of countries. I just mean that, for example you can grow most fruit in a greenhouse most the year round in the south of the UK. Of course, its nice to grow your own food. When I lived with my parents we had about 1/3 acre and nothing can beat the satisfaction of just going picking some of your own veg, cooking it up and eating it... but at the same time the obsession with "seasonal" food just for the sake of it is just a form of snobbery. I think thats the term you used and its a good one to describe the trends I dislike.
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It’s not about snobbery, it’s about giving back to your community and then knowing where your food comes from. Knowing that it is free of pesticides, chemicals and other crap they put on food now-a-days. It’s strange that a person who grew up with a small garden (and eating the food out of it) would hate a movement that wants you to give back to the people who continue to grow the food to this day.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
What really annoys me about this movement, or parts of it is the way they treat to make cooking real quality food as out of the reach of ordinary people. To me, a really nice wholesome stew with good brown bread is more satisfying than any meal I have ever eaten in a restuarent, however intricate or clever.
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So, the best meal you have ever eaten is a bowl of brown stew. This explains a lot.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Cooking good, simple, honest food is NOT difficult. This is the core of the whole "food challenge" that I initially was talking about. I dont think that I know as much about food as a guy who works as a cook or has done in his life, obviously. The angle I was coming at it from is that I dont need to. I really dont think you need any special skill or knowledge to cook well and make good food.
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It pains me to agree with this, but I am. Everyone should learn how to cook a few simple meals or learn the basics of cooking.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
To me, I would state that food can NEVER be art in itself, in the same way as cleaning cannot be. I have a friend who decorates cakes for living and some of the stuff she does is amazing - but its not the food itself that is, but the things she can make out of icing. At the end of the day, as impressive as the decoration is, underneath it you just have an ordinary sponge cake. And I'd apply the same judgment to real gourmet cooking. Sure, some of it takes skill, some of it can look or taste special, but underneath it - its just something to eat.
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You contradict yourself on a regular basis, you know that don’t you? You just “want something to eat” but at the same time you want it to be healthy and taste good. If you really thought that food was just “fuel to the body”, would you really care about taste or being healthy? You seem to want this magical meal that is healthy for you, super cheap, takes less than a minute to prepare (and on the skill level of a untrained monkey), and tastes good. When you find this amazing super-fast-cheap-easy-healthy meal, do use a favor and share the recipe with us.
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I got more to break down and fix some of the paragraphs I written in response to SF's virtual garbage he has dropped on here, but I'll hit it up later. Fucking work, interfering with my Internet playtime.