Dear Michael Ruhlman, This is Why I Cook

Food writer, Michael Ruhlman wrote about why he cooks and asked of bloggers to share as well why they cook. This is my response.

The first, and I'll admit-seemingly conceited, thing that comes to mind for me is, "I cook, because I can." That's true and not so arrogant as it comes off ... really.

I cook because I love to eat.

I cook to nourish my family in the best way possible. Letting someone else do it removes me from the process of knowing exactly what goes into our meals.

I cook to earn money. I develop recipes and take photos for a living 9and write about the process), and that end of it is ever fascinating and ever educational. I learn something new each day by doing.

I cook to remember. There is nothing so memory provoking as the aroma or flavor of a food loved as a child. Nothing. I make my grandmother's brownies or my great-grandmother's brown sugar cookies or my mother's fried chicken to recall all that was good and pure and wonderful about my childhood - even if it wasn't all good or pure or wonderful.

I cook to create new memories. Yes, the common thread here is that food is central to my feelings of well-being and health and I aim to continue building those feelings in my children and their children. I want them to have memories of love and home and nurturing all rolled into one loaf of bread or layer of cake. The more I cook, the more chances they have to watch and learn and begin to cook for themselves.

I cook to live. Eating is truly secondary for me to the creation process that takes place each time I make a dish. I tell people often that cooking is an art like no other with an instant gratification (or let-down, whichever the case may be) that you can't get by creating with any other medium. Paintings can take days to months to complete. Books are the same. Recordings, movies, sculptures - they all take much more time to create and to be appreciated. With food, the 'yay' or 'nay' are immediate - you know if your creation was loved or liked or hated before the creation is gone.

I cook to bring others happiness. There's nothing else to say about that.

So, I echo Michael Ruhlman - what are your reasons for cooking?

How to be a good cook

I've been thinking over the past couple of days about how easy it is to eat well in France. Not so much in restaurants any more - the standard overall is pretty poor these days - but in terms of the produce you have on your doorstep. The local greengrocer down the road from where we've been staying has seven or eight different kind of lettuces for example, most locally grown. In England you'd be lucky to find two or three.

Everything is really fresh too. You can smell the earth on the lettuces. Radishes have real crunch. Even the early strawberries smell of sweet, ripe fruit.

It makes you want to prepare food simply so you can enjoy those flavours - and that after all is what good cooking should be about. You can make a simple lunch out of a baguette, some radishes and a chunk of paté. Ripe tomatoes need no further elaboration than a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper and a trickle of vinegar. (If you slice them season them and anoint them with oil then leave them for 10 minutes they make their own delicious juice. The vinegar is just the final seasoning) You can add herbs like basil or parsley or scatter in some finely sliced white or green onions but you don't have to.


The art of good home cooking in my view lies not in being highly skilled but knowing what ingredients work together. Although you can become a perfectly competent cook by mastering a few basic recipes to be a great one you have to be a good eater, to really enjoy your food.

I get my best ideas these days not from complicated recipes but seeing what ingredients chefs put together and trying to reproduce what they do in a less expensive and time-consuming way. If you heighten your awareness of flavour and flavour combinations you're on the road to better eating!

What most inspires you to cook? Or do you regard it as a chore?

How to be a good cook

I've been thinking over the past couple of days about how easy it is to eat well in France. Not so much in restaurants any more - the standard overall is pretty poor these days - but in terms of the produce you have on your doorstep. The local greengrocer down the road from where we've been staying has seven or eight different kind of lettuces for example, most locally grown. In England you'd be lucky to find two or three.

Everything is really fresh too. You can smell the earth on the lettuces. Radishes have real crunch. Even the early strawberries smell of sweet, ripe fruit.

It makes you want to prepare food simply so you can enjoy those flavours - and that after all is what good cooking should be about. You can make a simple lunch out of a baguette, some radishes and a chunk of paté. Ripe tomatoes need no further elaboration than a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper and a trickle of vinegar. (If you slice them season them and anoint them with oil then leave them for 10 minutes they make their own delicious juice. The vinegar is just the final seasoning) You can add herbs like basil or parsley or scatter in some finely sliced white or green onions but you don't have to.


The art of good home cooking in my view lies not in being highly skilled but knowing what ingredients work together. Although you can become a perfectly competent cook by mastering a few basic recipes to be a great one you have to be a good eater, to really enjoy your food.

I get my best ideas these days not from complicated recipes but seeing what ingredients chefs put together and trying to reproduce what they do in a less expensive and time-consuming way. If you heighten your awareness of flavour and flavour combinations you're on the road to better eating!

What most inspires you to cook? Or do you regard it as a chore?