Quickthink

Some Saturday Fun

There are quite a few food celebrities selling their ideas and personalities on the web these days. Jamie Oliver is one of them, and he has a rather dynamic website. Here is the link. They are all seem to be on precisely the same mission. To demonstrate to the rest of us that preparing food well (and the word “well” delivers the key concept here) is an essential part of the good life. I fall naturally into their target group because I enthusiastically agree.

But even though I have followed their blogs, read their articles and watched their videos every day for years, I have a problem. I rarely have the time or the energy during the day to develop a decent food plan for the week.  There is a persistent gap between what I know and what I do. So I find myself staggering about the food store wondering what I am going to make for dinner that night. I tell myself that I am better than this, but I have to admit. I am usually improvising rather than building up a better kitchen routine.  And I can understand why pre-prepared dinners sell well. At least the photos on the packages look like one is about to get a decent meal without much fuss. It looks like a step up and one can be momentarily tempted to go for it, even when you know how this will play out when you get back home. Sadly, you can’t eat the photo.

Surely there are ways to do this better. Here are two thoughts that I throw out for some fun on a rainy Saturday morning. One is to deliver great food preparation ideas and images at the food store (not just sell food products).  Put up kiosks in the store that offer food preparation ideas and recipes via the web so zombies like me can get find a resource at our moment of greatest need. Get us inspired to buy better. For example, I would love to see Amanda’s cream of roasted tomato soup post from food52 when I am passing by the tomatoes. Why don’t food stores do this more often? Or do I have to buy an IPad to carry with me when I shop?

A second thought is to develop more local web sharing resources. I would like to know, for example, what Nico and Bianca are cooking during the week. Why? Because I know they are serious when they enter the kitchen. If they are doing something, I want to do it too. And I would even be willing to pay them to share their routines. Well, not a lot, but you get the idea.

These are just a few thoughts and perhaps there are much better ideas around to better use our digital resources. What would you like to see that could help you step into a digital food life style?

 FOLLOW - Some readers of QT will recall that I started posting a while ago about my kitchen computer. This was my first effort to use the web to better plan out my kitchen routines. I still think this is essential. Sadly, my old laptop gave its life for the cause.

FOLLOW -  There is a related problem in translating food expertise into routines and it has to do with the idea of “recipes”. They give the impression of precision, when in fact no one really cooks this way. Pete Wells says in his Cooking for Dexter column

The recipe, one of the most strictly formulated genres of writing, has to open up a little to make room for real life.

Here is a link to Pete’s entertaining piece on why thinking about “mise en place” is silly. I agree.So why do we feel somehow compelled to think this way?

FOLLOW -  Another issue goes to proper cooking technique. I confess. I get sloppy when I am cooking on my own. There are web resources on how to do the simple things right. Like peeling peppers. Here is a link to Ideas in Food that discusses this rather narrow topic. A while ago, Green Kitchen and Alice Waters did a series on simple techniques. Here is a link to my post on this. I watched one episode, but got distracted. Mea culpa. But come on! My digital tool box should make this easier!

Tags: good life

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 18th, 2010 at 10:42 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.