This New York Times blog article on TV Cooking vs. Real Cooking unknowingly recognizes the mission of Food 411 for One. It's about time someone did!
Hey. Things catch fire sometimes, even in “real” kitchens. Things overcook, they undercook, they look like something the cat dragged in, they’re oversalted, underspiced, soggy when they should be crisp, dry when they should be moist . . . in restaurants, good restaurants, chefs do these over. On TV, chefs gloss these over. Rarely are you given a sense of what really goes on.
The home cook, especially the aspiring home cook, needs encouragement — not befuddlement. Show people what actually happens in the kitchen, show people that mistakes are made (”The grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes” — Julia Child), show people that, just as you need not be Rafael Nadal to play tennis, you need not be Gordon Ramsay to cook a decent meal. And a decent meal — one you can proudly but humbly serve to your family and friends, and happily eat yourself — knowing that it could be better but that indeed it’s your creation, it’s wholesome, and it is in every sense good — is, or should be, the real goal of every home cook.
How you chop an onion? It doesn’t matter. At all.
Exactly! I invented not showing onion chopping.
