Elena Shippey
Professor Jesse Miller
English 110-G
20 March 2019
Get Back in the Kitchen
The Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary defines the term “workaholic” as “a person who works a lot of the time and finds it difficult not to work” (Cambridge University Press). Today in the United States, many individuals fall into this category as they work at the expense of doing other things. In his article, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch,” author and journalist Michael Pollan explores the priority shift of working Americans in terms of time management and spending. He pays special attention to the decreasing time spent in the kitchen over the decades and what effects this change has had on American culture. Pollan touches on the idea that the food people eat is a reflection of not only the time they have available, but how they choose to spend that time. Pollan includes that “Americans today spend more time working than any other industrialized nation” (Pollan 14). Picking up extra shifts at their jobs, they lose what would have been free time throughout the day. However he also mentions that despite the little freetime Americans have, most of them “can tell you months after the finale which contestant emerged victorious in Season 5 of ‘Top Chef’” (Pollan 3). Evident through the complex relationship between minimal downtime and increasing views for Food Network programs, Americans have moved away from the kitchen and onto the couch. They have gone from a regularly homemade meal to a usual frozen dinner or a favorite carry-out restaurant. This can be dangerous territory, for relying too heavily on premade meals and takeout may lead to the deterioration of the diverse culture of American food.
Over past decades, employment in the United States has undergone drastic changes. The fundamental concept of the American Dream remains the same: hard work allows one to afford to live the life they want, for themselves and for their families. However, the life most people desire today is far more expensive than it used to be. To compensate, longer work weeks have become increasingly common. Although working more hours may raise the paycheck, becoming a workaholic is problematic primarily for the negative effects it has on diet. A balanced diet requires attention, planning and most of all: time. Working too much decreases the time a person has available to put care into a healthy meal plan. Pollan asserts that “for many years now, Americans have been putting in longer hours at work and enjoying less time at home” (Pollan 14), inferring that this is not a completely new concept, but a shift that has taken place over a longer period of time.
Regardless of how much free time is available to a person on a daily basis, making time to eat healthy food with nutritional value is absolutely necessary. When people work too much, not only do they not have the time to properly prepare a meal, but they will likely be too exhausted to cook anyways. Due to this over-exertion of energy, people resort to quick and easy food to save them the trouble when they get home such as microwaveable meals or take-out. Some carry-out meals have become custom for families and have gained special meaning on their own. Such is the case for English student Kendra Murray, whose favorite meal “comes in a big brown paper bag, stapled shut, twice, and with a little receipt stuck to the side” (Murray). Murray goes on to explain the significance of this meal to her and her family, even though it may not be home cooked. Similarly, English student Sydney Wolf enjoys the nights where dinner is “served on paper plates, no flat wear, just extra napkins. It comes in two boxes. The first is a cardboard box, 15in x 15in x 2in with the logo of the most famous Buffalo restaurant printed in red on the top and a large delicious cheese and pepperoni pizza on the inside. The second a small, square Styrofoam take out container is packed to the brim with chicken wings, carrot sticks, celery, and containers of blue cheese” (Wolf). Although these are described as special occasion meals for both students, they have acquired the taste of takeout food for it to become their favorite meal, beating out a home cooked dinner. Although less likely today, some families, like English student Ethan Gagnon’s, have the ability to cook at home nearly every night. As he mentions in his Favorite Meal Essay, “my family never cooked the same thing more than once a month as a way to expand my young palate” (Gagnon). For Gagnon, the meals his mother prepared at home shaped how he enjoys food today, including his mother’s famous spinach tortellini. Less frequently today can families enjoy home cooked meals every night than in prior years due to daily time constraints. More commonly, families including Murray’s, Wolf’s and the audience Pollan refers to in his article have resorted to prepared food in order to enjoy a meal together. This new era of carry-out cooking has overcome American households with familiarity compared to the past norm of preparing dinner at home.
Although the trendline shows a decrease in free time over the years, every trend has its outliers. Not everyone works so much they barely have time to get a meal in. Some individuals have significant leisure time compared to that of a workaholic. Many people have the time available to prepare three meals a day, yet choose not to. Often times on a free night, instead of using available time to prepare a healthy meal, it is spent all night watching TV and eating popcorn or ordering a pizza. In these situations, Americans sacrifice their best interest for desire-driven entertainment. What makes the situation easier to succumb to is the accessibility of television as “the Food Network can now be seen in nearly 100 million American homes” (Pollan 3). By giving into these “cravings” for entertainment and choosing not to prepare a meal ourselves, we begin to develop a dangerous habit of becoming dependent on quick meals instead of cooking for ourselves.
Although some can be labeled as lazy for not meal prepping themselves, the majority of people simply don’t have the time. In order to fill the cultural void that comes from the lack of cooking, people turn to television programs that highlight the beauty and value of a homemade meal. What better place to find these programs than the Food Network? An entire channel dedicated to the celebration of food is guaranteed to satisfy its audience, as well as entertain. Or so was the goal.
The idea of cooking programs is not new; they have been around for decades. Originally, they were created and produced to reach the housewife and stay-at-home mom audience demographic. In the 1960s, Julia Child turned this tradition on its head with her cooking program “The French Chef.” Through her cooking show, Child showed her audience that cooking should be fun and enjoyable. Most importantly she showed that anyone can do it. There is no perfect or right way to prepare a meal; it is a process of trial and error. After her infamous potato pancake flip, Julia told her audience “‘when I flipped it, I didn’t have the courage to do it the way I should have. You can always pick it up”’ (Pollan 5). Julia’s message helped her audience realize that the goal is not perfection; it is to create something delicious that the chef is proud of. Inspired by her message on imperfection, Julia’s audience was also empowered by her show as she addressed tensions of gender politics by tackling the stereotype of women in the kitchen. Child pulled inspiration from Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex,” where cooking was viewed as “revelation and creation; and a woman can find special satisfaction in a successful cake or a flaky pastry, for not everyone can do it: one must have the gift” (Pollan 6). Making cooking less about a job that a woman should be able to do and more about a talent that a woman possesses gave the word a positive connotation, which made it more approachable and therefore more popular during this time.
This mindset that Julia Child gave her viewers began to away as the Food Network gained popularity. Over time, cooking shows have hired more involved production teams, all involved in the chef’s preparation process to make sure the procedure runs smoothly and the finished product is perfect. “‘How good are you going to look when you serve this?’” asks Paula Deen, one of many celebrity chefs with a polished-looking cooking show (Pollan 5). Where Child’s show was a one-take program, The Food Network invests more time and energy into the editing process than the educational aspect of cooking. They cut down the in-between steps and string the most important parts together to create an accelerated, yet fluid cooking experience. Food Network makes sure their programs are hosted by the public’s favorite celebrity chefs, hoping to increase viewer count. Although the shows successfully gained popularity, pro chefs hosting shows takes away the feeling that anyone can prepare the meal seen on TV. Julia Child was an everyday figure who showed other everyday people how to prepare homemade meals. A show hosted by a celebrity chef puts the viewer under the impression that the cooking should be left to the chefs, making it less inviting for the viewer to try the recipe themselves. It is difficult to not worry about failing when the expectation on TV is unrealistically perfect. Cooking programs on Food Network became more polished and pristine, but the network felt it was time to expand. They began including shows like “Iron Chef America” and “Chopped” where competition is the objective and cooking is just the medium through which people can compete. Other shows like “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” are less about cooking and more about food, which directly encourage people to dine out rather than cook for themselves. Overall, the Food Network has shifted the audience’s goals from “genuine interest in producing food yourself to the spectacle of merely consuming it” (Pollan 11) without them even being aware of it. People watch Food Network to feel involved in cooking, which they do not have time to do. Food Network limiting the number of programs that actually demonstrate how a meal is prepared disconnects them even more from the process. Shows about eating don’t necessarily fill the cooking void the same way; everyone knows how to eat. However, people will watch whatever they believe brings them closer to the kitchen, which is whatever the Food Network produces.
The solution is not so simple as to force people to stop working so much. It is impossible to reverse the economic system when conditions remain the same. What people can do is choose to spend their time more effectively. There are plenty of meal prepping plans that are time and cost efficient, generated towards the audience of busy individuals who don’t have as much time to cook as they would like. Another thing to keep in mind is to spend some time in the kitchen when time allows. If we lose our diversity in food – real, home cooked food and not takeout- we lose a piece of our diverse culture. American food is the culmination of foods from all around the world; to lose this would be to lose profound value of what makes our country unique.
Works Cited
“Definition of ‘workaholic’ from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary.” Cambridge University Press. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/workaholic Accessed 15 March 2019.
Gagnon, Ethan. “Pesto Alfredo Tortellini.” EPortfolio.
https://egagnon2.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/1543/2019/02/Favorite-Meal-Essay-Draft-2.pdf Accessed 15 March 2019.
Murray, Kendra. “My Favorite Meal.” EPortfolio. https://kmurray16.uneportfolio.org/food-for-thought/ Accessed 3 March 2019.
Wolf, Sydney. “Favorite Meal Essay.” EPortfolio. https://swolf3.uneportfolio.org/food-for-thought/ Accessed 15 March 2019.
