I have a confession to make and it pains me to go public with it, but here goes…
There once was a time when I loved nothing more than to spend a full day in the kitchen, even many days, preparing for a single party or making a complicated dish that proved to my friends I had culinary chops. For almost 5 years of my life, I ran my own catering/personal chef business and spent every waking hour shopping, cooking, or cleaning up in the kitchen. I loved it! I completely remodeled my kitchen, in fact, because there was no place I’d rather be (isn’t it pretty?) Cooking was my identity, it gave me a purpose, and channeled my creativity. It was who I was.
Notice the past tense. Fast forward about ten years, and I no longer love cooking. There, I’ve said it.
I am busy. I am a Mom and I now have other things that bring me joy, including actually spending time with my son. Yet still, I probably cook an hour and a half a day when you combine full breakfast, lunch and dinner prep plus snacks for my little family of three. It is a chore, it is endless and it is more about getting people fed than bringing joy into my life.
I stumbled on a Slate article recently by a fellow foodie and culinary author, Tracie McMillian. Tracy’s similar confession, “cooking every day can be a drag” makes me feel better. Even if you believe, as Tracie obviously does, and as I do, that eating freshly prepared meals is important, and that cooking from scratch should be championed, it is OK to admit that it isn’t always fun. There are times, as Julia Child’s even acknowledged, when “time schedules, children’s meals, [and] the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome” can get in the way of the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat.
For those days when the chores loom and people are still hungry, I am grateful for the prepared meals at Trader Joes, for Choicelunches and for the Whole Foods salad bars. There, I have confessed. Are Tracie and I the only ones?
