Phantom Cooks

Times have certainly changed.
Home cooking used to involve thawing meat, peeling and slicing vegetables and planning on the time it takes for everything to cook.

These days - so many recent television commercials would have us believe - home cooking is as easy as pouring a bag of frozen “Pot Roast with Vegetables” into a frying pan to reheat.

Or pulling a package of freeze-dried “shelf” noodles out of the pantry and heating some water.

Have We Really Forgotten How to Cook?

The answer is, in part, “yes.”

According to “Supermarket Guru” Phil Lempert, the food consumer in 2003 is “a shopper with no time and no cooking skills.”

In spite of increased sales of gourmet ingredients, kitchen gadgets and cookbooks, almost 2/3 of the American population (representing a variety of ethnic groups, backgrounds and generations) can no longer tell the difference between “cooking” a meal and “assembling” it.

Why?
There was no one to teach them.

The average shopper today, Lempert says, likely never learned to cook or saw a parent make a meal from scratch.

And with so many meal options - fast food, supermarket meals, and “healthier” fully-prepared restaurant meals available for delivery - why would anyone learn?

IN THE HOLE! Golf