Message to Food Editors: What 30-Minute Meals Really Mean

I can honestly say I've never gotten more mileage out of the word bullshit than I did last week at the IACP conference in Portland, Oregon. But I have to clarify that when I called bullshit, I wasn't responding to Karen Page personally--she was simply voicing what everyone seems to believe and propagate: that we all lead such busy lives that we have no time to cook.

To repeat: bullshit. Maybe you don't like to cook, maybe you're too lazy to cook, maybe you'd rather watch television or garden, I don't know and I don't care, but don't tell me you're too busy to cook. We all have the same hours every day, and we all choose how to use them. Working 12-hour days is a choice.

Tell me, do you ever hear this? "You know, this month, I really wished I'd had more time, because I believe in paying taxes. I was just too busy." Or, "I've got this cancer on my forehead but I've just been too busy to have it removed." Or, "You know how hard it is to get your kid into kindergarten in Manhattan; if only I weren't been so busy."

We don't blow that stuff off, do we? But the processed food companies make it easy to blow off cooking for ourselves. And we do so at our peril. This is why I responded to Karen as I did. America is too stupid to question whether something is good for it or not ("Marge, it says snack well right on the box!"). And in the very same way we believe that idiocy, we believe these very same companies telling us how wonderful our lives will be if we buy this low-fat Lean Cuisine because it will save us so much time, only 3 minutes! Used to take seven! You've got four extra minutes to play with!

This is not a judgment against people who eat Lean Cuisines. If you're happy eating them and life couldn't be better for you, I'm not going to say a word. I just don't want to hear it's because you don't have the time to cook real food.

Since the food industry began, they've been pushing for faster and faster cooking times--that's what they were selling, not food you enjoy or that makes you feel good. That's what they want people to value. For decades, not only have the multinational food corporations been selling us speed, so have the media. The media embraced it. "That's what people want!" argue editors and publishers I've spoken with.

Magazines, newspapers, and television shows bombard us with quick and easy meals. Have been for decades. Have we gotten any better, any happier, any healthier? Some people have. But not because they learned how to spend less time cooking. It's likely because they learned to spend more time cooking. And the rest of the country has only gotten fatter, sicker and sadder, to the point that the government feels it needs to step in and regulate the food.

Part of the problem is the magazine editors and television producers drumming us over the head with fast and easy meal solutions at home. It's the wrong message to send. These editors and producers and publishers are backing the processed food industry, propelling their message. What I say to you magazine editors and producers, to you Rachael Ray and you Jamie Oliver and your 20 minutes meals: God bless you, but you are advertising and marketing on behalf of the processed food industry.

Quick, fast, and easy isn't the point. Good is the point. Makes you feel good is the point. I am not saying spend three hours making a chicken galantine. I am saying put a chicken the oven with some cut up potatoes for an hour. Yes, a whole hour! If you're inclined to enjoy some carnal exertions with your partner during that hour, that chicken will be all the more appreciated. But if there's laundry to be done, if there are kids who need help with their geometry, then do that. (Need specifics on roasting? They're at the end of this post.)

In an hour, all who are eating, help set the table, fill some glasses, take out the plates. Make the time. In the same way that you make time to buy shoes for the kids, clean the bathroom, pay your bills--make time to be together over food that makes you feel good when you've finished eating it. Quick and easy won't get you anywhere. Quick and easy will only frustrate you and make you feel like you're failing. You want quick and easy? That's what take-out's for. Nothing wrong with it. Pizza, I love to come home with a couple beautiful pies from Marotta's down the street and open a nice bottle of wine.

But I know for a fact that spending at least a few days a week preparing food with other people around, enjoying it together, is one of the best possible things in life to do, period. It's part of what makes us human. It makes us happy in ways that are deep and good for us. Fast and easy has nothing to do with it.

 

Follow Michael Ruhlman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ruhlman

Comments

[wosnes]

09:13 AM on 05/15/2010

I remember reading an article by Marian Burros sometime in the 1980s -- it was at the time her book 20 Minute Menus was published. Readers of the magazine (Good Housekeepi­ng, I think) had been begging for meals that would be ready in 30 minutes. By the time she and the other editors and writers had that figured out, readers were clamoring for meals that would be done in 20 minutes.

My husband used to marvel at the fact that his mom could come home from work and get a meal on the table in 30 minutes. This was during the 60s and early 70s. No manufactur­ed foods and no microwave. She did use a pressure cooker often.

Don't blame this all on the food writers and editors -- or those who are trying to fill a need. It started in the home kitchens! You've picked two people to criticize who are doing more than most others to get manufactur­ed foods off our tables at home, not to mention out of school lunchrooms­.

[bobdob]

11:53 PM on 05/06/2010

For me, cooking is like music: totally absorbing and extremely personal. I would no more ask a great cook for a recipe than I would ask a painter for a paint-by-n­umbers diagram to duplicate their painting. (I might, however, ask them if they used a brush or a palette knife.) In my opinion, there's nothing more noble in life than sharing a meal with family and friends, then washing the dishes after the meal. Except, perhaps, sharing a kitchen with friends who are passionate about creating a great meal for the people they love. I highly recommend it. Cook with others at least once a week. It will enrich your life and sooth your spirit. Michael Ruhlman is one of my heroes. Partly because I'm pretty sure he understand­s that, in the end, it's not really about the food--it's about the feeling around the table.

And if Mr. Ruhlman reads these comments, I have something personal to say: I used to live in Portland. It's the crankiest place I've ever been. Don't take it personally­.

[bobdob]

11:55 PM on 05/06/2010

Ignore this post. It's continuous below.

[bobdob]

11:53 PM on 05/06/2010

Dear God, this man is brilliant. I will forever be in his debt, not only because he wrote Ratios, but because he made me feel less alone in the world of cooking. I used to think I was a weirdo for eschewing cookbooks and recipes and seeking informatio­n instead. When I learned to cook Indian, I wanted to know how to make a masala like an Indian grandma. I wanted to understand it--not merely duplicate a series of recipes. And I'm thankful to Julie Sahni and her excellent "Classic Indian Cooking" for giving me the informatio­n I needed. Thanks to her, I know that black pepper warms the body and red pepper excites the tongue. And when I studied Japanese cuisine, the somewhat severe but infinitely patient Tsuji-san insisted, in "Japanese Cooking - A Simple Art", that I learn to make true dashi and cook rice properly. They gave me the basics and I took off from there. And my life is better for it.

Michael Ruhlman has given me the motherlode­: the ratios that every chef must know by heart in order to *be* a chef. CIA? I don't need you. It may take a lifetime, but I'll learn everything you can possibly teach me, and I'll become a better person in the process. Like Jacques Pepin's "La Technicque­" and Ferdinand Point's "Ma Gastronomi­e", Ruhlman has thrown open the doors and given me unfettered access to a wondrous, endlessly creative kitchen. The rest is up to me.

[bobdob]

11:53 PM on 05/06/2010

For me, cooking is like music: totally absorbing and extremely personal. I would no more ask a great cook for a recipe than I would ask a painter for a paint-by-n­umbers diagram to duplicate their painting. (I might, however, ask them if they used a brush or a palette knife.) In my opinion, there's nothing more noble in life than sharing a meal with family and friends, then washing the dishes after the meal. Except, perhaps, sharing a kitchen with friends who are passionate about creating a great meal for the people they love. I highly recommend it. Cook with others at least once a week. It will enrich your life and sooth your spirit. Michael Ruhlman is one of my heroes. Partly because I'm pretty sure he understand­s that, in the end, it's not really about the food--it's about the feeling around the table.

And if Mr. Ruhlman reads these comments, I have something personal to say: I used to live in Portland. It's the crankiest place I've ever been. Don't take it personally­.

[Karla Sakamoto]

05:52 PM on 05/06/2010

I agree 100%. My father passed away when I was seven years old. My brother and I were latchkey kids and yet my mother was able to provide us with healthy food. We rarely went out to eat. My fondest food memories of a child is filled with fresh corn on the cob and spinach served Japanese style seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil.

[singermuse]

12:28 AM on 05/06/2010

Right on Michael! I mean, just how hard can it be? Toss some bagged frozen "stir-fry" veggies in a wok with a bit of oil, add some chicken breast "tenderloi­ns" (they come frozen too) and a few choice spices and one can have a pretty tasty and healthy meal. It's. Not. That. Hard.

[MarielGM]

01:24 AM on 05/06/2010

Um, I agree with you, but I'm not sure that it illustrate­s the point of the "take longer to cook" article. According to the author, at least judging by what he wrote in the article, your meal misses the entire point of the food experience­... It's ten minutes worth of stirring. You've been tricked by the industry into buying frozen "stir-fry veggies" because less prep time is better!

That said, I think your idea is perfectly nutritious and enjoyable, and it doesn't take over 10 minutes to prepare. Which is why I think the article misses the point.

[MarielGM]

09:51 PM on 05/05/2010

I think the article is right when telling people that fast isn't necessaril­y the highest priority related to food. But you need the same dogmatic position that you're trying to fight to buy the rest of it!

A quick fix doesn't imply eating the wrong things. Moreover, the article seems to say that
eating the right thing is not as high a priority as "feeling good and being sociable while cooking". So if someone grills and puts a salad together in 20 minutes, he is stupid because he didn't roast a chicken with potatoes for 1h? A quick nutri-anal­ysis will to show who ate the biggest number of empty calories, and it won't be the quick person.

"Good is the point". No kidding! Isn't good always the point? Thing is, for some, "good" may mean "quick" because they'll have more time to spend running with their children. Why should "good" need to mean "tasty and social" for everybody? Especially with suggestion­s that don't match what a nutritioni­st would tell you. Does "tasty and social" really redeem it all when you're eating those hundreds of calories in potatoes, or that fatty (but home-made, ah!) pizza? Even better - does it when you feed it to children, who don't have a say about their health?

Get people to think. They need to question what media, their own habits tell them. But don't pretend that forcing a view of "good" down their throat becomes justified just because you bashed the media.

[homecookin]

10:05 PM on 05/04/2010

I completely agree. I'm at an age (40's) where the difference between my friends who eat well and who eat garbage is really showing in our health and looks. I'm a former restaurant chef so making meals is easy for me, but even if it was a challenge I would do it so that my children can have the advantages of learning to cook and eat healthy, delicious food in a social setting.

[Michelle Dudash]

06:15 PM on 05/04/2010

Yes, I was in the room listening to you, Michael, and I said an "mmm...hmm­m...amen".

Sure, a lot of it is not making eating healthy a priority. You can sit in front of the TV less or say no to some social obligation­s.

The other problem stems from some people having an absolute fear of cooking. As a Registered Dietitian and chef, many people assume I cook a gourmet dinner each night. Oh, heck no! (I have a 1 year old and two companies to run, after all). I proceed to explain how I just throw some salmon and asparagus on the grill and steam some rice. They say, "Oh, I'm afraid to cook fish," and "Wow! You can grill asparagus?­"

As food experts I think the more we can reach out to people on how to make easy, quick meals, the better.

[Pushpin100Count]

03:31 PM on 05/04/2010

Cooking is fun. It's the cleanup that's a 6itch.

[David McDevitt]

02:53 PM on 05/04/2010

Have you ever watched Rachael Ray?

[Konnie]

07:41 PM on 05/03/2010

there comes a point in your life where it's also bu.l.%^it to cook every frackin meal too. i was such a great cook my ex thought there was no point in going out to eat! so when i kicked his sorry %^& to the curb i closed the kitchen!

[Ljilja]

04:25 PM on 05/03/2010

Everyone has time to cook and if they don't, they need to make time. I have a husband and three children. I work full time. I am busy.

But we cook every night. We make sure we shop for fresh groceries and have ready staples in our pantry We plan ahead. If we are desperate, we add fresh vegetables to a ready made pasta sauce. Add a salad and garlic bread and you have a meal.

http://gra­ciouslivin­gdaybyday.­com/

[CaveatLector]

12:39 PM on 05/03/2010

I'm an amateur chef and I love to cook. And I do think more people should cook their own meals, and involve their children in the process. Having said that, I also remember what it was like as a SINGLE MOTHER raising children by myself and working 2, sometimes 3 jobs just to be able to pay for that food. You say to just put a chicken in the oven with cut potatoes for an hour. But you forget that you have to remember to buy the chicken, defrost it, take it out of the package without contaminat­ing your kitchen (raw poultry is tricky stuff), wash it, put something in the bottom of the pan so it won't stick like glue, then wash the dirt off the potatoes, remove the icky sprout things growing out of the eyes, prick them with a fork, drag out the cutting board, cut them into the same size pieces....­at the end of a 15 hour workday, with little ones crying and screaming and the dog messing up the house and the dishes from breakfast still not done...wel­l, I have to admit: going to McDonald's seemed a LOT easier.

[Checquoline]

06:56 PM on 05/03/2010

Don't do potatoes during the week. Don't do whole chickens during the week. Do the easy meals during the week and the hard ones on weekends.

[dslwc]

12:21 AM on 05/08/2010

totally agree; it's not the simple act of cooking that is complicate­d and time consuming, its everything that comes before (and with kids, during!) and after it.

[Checquoline]

12:22 PM on 05/03/2010

It does not take an hour to make a hot meal. I think the problem is that many just simply don't know how to cook. It takes a few minutes to steam fresh vegetables­. Rice is quick. If you eat meat saute a chicken breast or cube steak. Do not cook in the microwave. It distroys nutrients. I am telling you.......­.do not buy processed meals and learn to cook. Make sure you have the ingriedien­ts on hand and think of it as a work of art. Pasta is quick. I cook every single day. Quick meals during the week and longer meals on weekends. I do not go for the TV version of 30 min. meals. It looks like mixed up slop to me.

[PalaceOfWisdom]

11:41 AM on 05/03/2010

Maybe actually watch Rachael Ray a few times before criticizin­g. She doesn't use processed foods at all on 30 minute meals. She uses fresh ingredient­s and demonstrat­es preparatio­n methods that put finished meals on the table quickly WITHOUT compromisi­ng quality.

Incidental­ly, many of us are single, and large dishes with longer cooking times mean eating leftovers multiple times. Ironically­, that becomes a time saver that often means lower quality when reheating.

[CaveatLector]

12:41 PM on 05/03/2010

I love the idea of 30 minute meals, but Ray ran out of ideas about 3 years ago. She uses a kajillion spices in every dish, clomps around the kitchen like a manic pony, and no one is going to convince me that her giant pasta water boils in the 3 minute break she takes for commerical­s.