OPINION (AN COLÚN): Real home cooking is a treasure of highest value

THERE used to be a time when I didn't cook. I looked on it as a chore taking up a lot of time, time when I could be doing more preferable things. That all changed 15 years ago when I decided to break the habit of many years and start cooking regularly. I was very fortunate when growing up to have a mother who cooked excellent home cuisine, of an Irish orientation. I am equally fortunate to have been married for many years to someone who loves cooking, regularly producing meals which are of the highest quality.
In complete contrast with my younger self I now love cooking. I usually avoid processed food, opting nearly always for natural ingredients. My aim is to produce good, wholesome food which is also very tasty. Despite the busy nature of our lives and the time-consuming aspect of buying and preparing food, Rosalind and I manage to eat decent homecooked food most of the time. We also love cooking for others and seeing the pleasure which our cooking gives them. We also understand the vital importance of sitting down together at home, at least once, often twice, a day, and eating a meal we've cooked.
While I don't think a certain amount of fast food eating is problematic, I do think we Irish eat too much of the stuff. A recent survey revealed that one in three Irish people eat fast food or ready meals as their main meal at least three times per week. The results of the survey indicate that Ireland is emulating other western countries and is becoming more and more fast food oriented. The survey pointed out that one in five Irish people are having ready meals or processed food for their main meal at least three times per week.
The American food writer Michael Pollan has a lot of interesting things to say about this culinary state of affairs in the west. He points out that since time immemorial cooking was women's responsibility. There was a clear division of labour, with men out in nature doing the hunting while women remained at home doing the cooking. In the 20th Century this state of affairs underwent a dramatic transformation. Following the Second World War the western world witnessed a profound state of change in its homes. In the West extended families diminished in prevalence, and nuclear families became ever more the norm. Increasingly, more and more women found themselves alone in the kitchen for long stretches of time during the day.
Pollan points out that in America the food industry had been trying to get into the kitchen for a very long time. “Beginning at the end of World War Two,” he says, “the American companies put a lot of effort into selling Americans on the processed food wonders that they had made to feed the troops, 'wonders' which included canned meals, freeze-dried foods, dehydrated potatoes, powdered orange juice and coffee, instant and super convenient everything. Processing food is extremely profitable; much more so than growing it or selling it whole.”
Another food writer, Laura Schapiro, points out that the shift towards more industrial cookery was mainly a supply driven phenomenon. “So, the food companies come out of World War 2,” she explains. “They had to get their products into people's kitchens. There was fruit cocktail - you could either just dump it into a bowl; or you could put in the coleslaw; or you could pour it over the roast. One of the great treats was called a frozen fruit salad - it was gelled with mayonnaise and with cream and then you cut it in slices and served it on a lettuce leaf (which was the difference between frozen fruit salad as dessert and frozen fruit salad as an accompaniment to dinner). Spam was very popular.”
The food companies also embraced hyper processed food, which is ready to eat, completely cooked, food (only requiring a heating session in the oven or on the hob). The food industry targeted housewives, focussing on the idea that running the household was a race against the clock and it was often drudgery - time and convenience were regular themes in the advertising world, as was the theme that this processed food was better than what you could make at home. Nowadays, argues Pollan, we have a food industry in the West which is deliberately trying to undermine home cooking as an everyday practice, and is trying to convince us that it's really hard, time consuming and messy “and you would be so much better off letting us cook for you. When you let a corporation cook your food they cook differently than people do. You can tell just by reading the ingredient label - you don't have mono and diglycerides in your pantry. Their business model is getting the cheapest possible raw ingredient and making it as attractive as they can without spending a lot of money. And the way you do that is by deploying lots of salt, fat and sugar. When you layer salt, fat and sugar, foods become incredibly attractive and it kicks off the dopamine network and cravings. In the case of carbohydrates, you get these spikes of blood sugar and then the crash, and you need more carbohydrates to keep it up - you see this with people who drink a lot of minerals.” In other words, according to Pollan, Schapiro, and many other food writers, food companies are focussing on your cravings and getting you to eat as much as you possibly can. Western countries are straining with the public health problems caused by this kind of food. The industry is also targeting the developing world. It has been making significant inroads, for example, into the culinary habits of India.
One economist found that as the length of time that we spent cooking went down, then, correspondingly, obesity went up. Harry Balzer has a great bit of advice. He says, “Eat anything you want. Enjoy all of your food. Anything you want. If you want to have an apple pie, have a whole apple pie tonight; if you want to have cookies with that apple pie, and ice cream with that apple pie, I will allow you to eat all the cookies, all the ice cream and pie that you want. I am just going to ask you to do one thing. Make all of them. Make the apple pie, make the cookies, make the ice cream. And do you know what I know is going to happen - you are not having apple pie, cookies and ice cream tonight.” Adhering to Balzer's stipulation means you will end up eating far less processed food and you will be eating far healthier; the point being that when you have to buy and make your own food, a lot of the time you will therefore buy the best quality raw ingredients that you can afford and will cook it as simply as possible. In other words, it is much better that we get into the kitchen and start cooking, rather than allowing the big companies produce our meals for us.