"Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch"

Here's an interesting article by Michael Pollan from the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

It talks about how cooking in the US has slowly become a spectator sport. He traces the development over time of TV cooking shows from Julia Child (encouraging participation and bravery in the kitchen) to Iron Chef America (mostly spectacle, but encouraging bravery in consuming). Because it's Michael Pollan, he ties it up with some observations about how people's overall eating habits could be impacted for the better in the midst of all this.

And some Lisa P. family background:

Dad is a better cook than Mom, but mostly refuses to cook except for special occasions. Mom had a hot family dinner on the table every evening, but beyond a few go-to dishes, anything beyond food from a box or can is beyond Mom's abilities or desire. Pretty typical of dual-income suburban households, I think.

As my sisters and I got sick of the same repeated schlock, we learned to cook. We were the first generation to embrace written recipes. Previous folks in our family had all cooked and baked by "feel." But we picked up our skills mostly as we were on our way out of the house. So now, if there's a big family Thanksgiving or Christmas or Reunion dinner, the sisters and I are usually in charge. If we're not there, Dad takes over. As empty nesters with dual income, the vast majorities of their meals are convenience foods or meals eaten out. It's not worth the effort to heat up the oven for 2 people any more.

But it is true - cooking is mostly a spectator sport for folks. Lots of times when we cook, we're adding water and eggs to a cake mix or browning ground beef for Hamburger Helper. And that's all good, but honestly, it doesn't take that much longer to make a cake from scratch or to make beefy cheesy macaroni with the basic ingredients.

But it does take more preplanning, it does take a stocked pantry, and it takes knowledge. And getting all that stuff together does take more time. There's got to be a way to help balance things out for folks that doesn't suck up all their time and energy and resources.

Any ideas?

Tony Awards!

A little pop culture diversion:

I use to watch the Tonys every year for a while in high school, maybe into college.  But past few years I've just read a award rundown.  I forgot how much I like seeing performances from musicals (and a bit of the plays), even if I may never see them.  But I live in Chicago, so tours and stagings are always a distinct possibility.  But it's expensive, so I rarely go.  Shame on me.  I need to get more serious about rush tickets or something.

NPH was a great host.  His closing song was spectacular.  (See how I avoided a Barney joke there?)  The sound suuuuuucked!  If I can hear it wonking out, it was bad.  At one point, the revival cast of Guys and Dolls was singing "Sit Down."  Or actually, they were just starting, Nicely's pin mike (I guess that's what the forehead zit mike is called) went kaput, then you heard a tech saying "Should I take it out?!  Should I take it out?!" and techie ran on stage with a wireless mic.

There was a lotta dislike of Billy Elliot (BE) in the BroadwaySpace.com chat room I was in last night.  I think folks felt it was overhyped and the 500-lb gorilla that (almost) swept the awards.  Haven't seen it or anything else on B'way in a while, but I can see why they felt that way.  I know a lot of people are carrying resentment about good shows/performers that got left out of categories all together and/or got overlooked by bigger shows.  Apparently this year on B'way wasn't quite a full-out feast, but much less famine than in some years. 

I've never even seen the movie, so this is a lot of speculation.  But I've seen talk on some West End boards that there was concern about moving the show from London to New York.  Like Full Monty, there's a lot of cultural framing that needs to occur.  But some of the surrounding events for BE are specifically related to labor issues in the UK that US folks would know little about.  I assume there were some tweaks done to make sure it all makes sense.

The speech by the 3 Billys as they won Best Actor in a Musical was cute.  I hope they all have long, enjoyable careers.  They're all 14/15 and I can't imagine having a show resting on your shoulders like that.

The opening number was huge and great.  Instead of the host singing and dancing, actually had the musical casts doing their thing.  There was some nice interplay between some casts.   Opening number ended with probably most of the audience on stage singing "Let the Sun Shine In" from the Hair revival.

Now I've never seen a production of Hair that I like, but I can fully believe that this revival earned it's awards.  I probably should try to see it someday to see if it can make me care at all.  But it was funny watching various folks in the audience get teabagged by the male leads during their part in the intro and as they sang later on.

All in all, a good night.  I think the chatting really helped me watch it and not feel all bleh-y.  It's hard slogging through awards shows without some social interaction.  Maybe I'll try to throw a Tony party next year.  But I'm not sure I could tolerate that many drama queens in my living space.