“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst”
William Penn
“The quality of life is more important than life itself”
Alexis Carrel
“Creation is a better means of self-expression than possession; it’s through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed”
Vida D. Scudder
Mr. Italicano and I recently returned from 2 weeks of my cooking demonstrations in New York City with SMEG USA to help celebrate their 10th anniversary in the states. I spent the week catching up on jet leg and reflecting about the comments I received from the people who stopped by to watch these cooking shows.
What I discovered is that that one of the overarching problems for local New Yorkers is that the meal time decision usually comes down to one thing: time. Of course, this is quite a universal problem, but it really struck home while talking with people who live in the city and rarely, if ever, cook. “I just don’t have time,” they would say.
Cooking for me is a sacred part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Not only am I creating, which stimulates sentiments of satisfaction, I also know exactly what I am putting into my body. Why would anyone who wants to lead a balanced and healthy lifestyle refute these two things?
Although many New Yorkers had blamed it on time, I want to help by giving my opinion about the time for cooking simple meals. If you try to compare a simple and nutritious meal that you would make at home to the same kind of meal you would find, let’s say, at an organic restaurant near your home, the factor of time is almost the same. Don’t believe me? Let’s do the calculation together:
TIME: Restaurant vs. Home Cooked Meal
10′- Find a restaurant available
10’ – Find a new recipe
15’ – Drive and park
15’ – Start cooking and talk
15’ – Order and wait for the plate
15’ – Cook, serve and talk
30’ – Eat and talk
30’ – Eat and talk
15’ – Pay and drive home
15’ – Clean up
COST: Restaurant vs. Home Cooked Meal
Check for two: $100
Cost for two: $30
The time itself to cook a simple, healthy meal is roughly the same as going out to a restaurant, and the benefits of cooking at home are numerous: it costs a fraction for the same meal, you know exactly what ingredients you are using, you feel satisfied with having created something with your hands, and you can eat in your pajamas if you feel like it. 🙂
So to sum up, since cooking a delicious homemade meal is roughly the same amount of time it takes to go out to get the same quality meal, I suppose the real question that we should also be asking ourselves is this: how do I want to spend my time? For me, cooking with people I love in the comfort of my home is one the best ways I can think of to spend my time.
I am curious to know what you think about this discussion of “not having enough time to cook”. Are you also interested in receiving more recipes that are broken down by time and costs?
COOKING UP NEXT:
At every cooking demonstration in NYC I asked the people attending if they liked to cook. Many replied “yes!” Yet, there was always a group of people who responded with the following:
“I like to cook but…”
*I DON’T HAVE TIME
*I’M NOT CAPABLE
*MY RECIPES AREN’T “GOOD ENOUGH”
Today we’ve talked about time. Coming up, I’ll dive into the other two topics. Stay tuned!