What's the point of cooking at home anymore?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 16 фев 2020
- Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring this video! Use code ADAMRAGUSEA10 to get 10 free meals including shipping with HelloFresh: bit.ly/308weOh Purchase required.
University of Michigan study that found meal delivery kits have a lower carbon footprint compared to cooking the same meal from the grocery store (not free): www.sciencedirect.com/science...
South Park's "Crème Fraîche" episode (not free): www.hulu.com/watch/6445bca8-5...
Prof. Deric Shannon at Oxford College of Emory University: app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/... 
Хобби
Q: Isn't it way cheaper to cook at home?
A: I feel like folks who are saying things like this in the comments didn't watch the video all the way through, since cost is something I discussed at length. I will reiterate, though, that certainly you CAN save a lot of money by cooking for yourself. However, I don't think you should take it for granted that your home-cooked meal will necessarily be cheaper than something you could buy prepared or semi-prepared from a grocery store, or from a restaurant - assuming you live in a highly developed country like the U.S. I've certainly seen a lot of people, usually beginner home cooks, waste a lot of money trying to recreate fancy recipes at home. The point I make in the video is that you can't expect to eat the same way you would from restaurants and still save money just by cooking it yourself. You can't expect that much variety - you've gotta embrace leftovers. You can't except to follow every recipe to the letter - if you buy a new spice or something for every recipe, you're never gonna use enough of it to make it cost-effective, etc.
Q: Why is the lighting different in this video?
A: Because I'm experimenting with different things. At the pace at which I work, pretty much all of my experimenting has to be done in an actual video, and I would agree this experiment was a failure. I've been wanting to try something different from my softbox kit because I don't like how they make people look so airbrushed, and recently some people have been saying they thought it looked like I was talking in front of a green screen. The single-point lighting I did in this vid was the same as the set-up I used in the pizza cheese video (which I liked the look of), except I had to shoot this one at night, so there was less ambient light in the room and the shadows were therefore more severe. I'll keep playing with it. But since my kitchen is getting demolished in a week, there's gonna be about a month where all the Monday videos will be shot somewhere else, so the look is going to vary a lot for a while.
Q: Why did you show a picture of Cleveland when talking about highly developed, post-industrial economies?
A: Honestly it was the only city skyline footage I had at hand. I was dipping into that file anyway, because the beef footage I showed at the beginning was from West Side Market. Also I love Cleveland. And before you snark, remember that places like Cleveland, for all their problems, are still highly developed in the global context.
I have always loved cooking and i think it's worth it to cook at home
I've come from a family of home cooks, and what I can say is that it is a lot more cost effective if you put an effort into planning for meals rather than recipes. Like, "oh we'll have chicken with corn on Wednesday, and steak and potatoes on Thursday,..." instead of "and then I'll grill some corn with a saffron-infused garlic butter, and then rotisserie some chicken with a unique combination of 23 herbs, spices, and leaves I found on the ground..." If you just know the basic plan then you can add recipes based on what you want to try.
@@windturbine6796 Preach!
i know this is kind of an off topic question but this kind of interests me; do you play video games? and if yes which oney?
Cooking also gives me some physical activity around the house, as someone who actually doesn't like working out lol(I really should tho), in addition to me walking to college(roughly 2 miles away) at least 2 out of 5 days in a week. I also like figuring out my own personal tastes and what EXACTLY about those tastes I like, whether it's the salt, onions, garlic, tomato, chilli powder(my go-to secret ingredient lulz) or whatever it is. I've also started to maintain my health better by cooking at home rather than buy pre-packaged goods around here. I've also lost the palete for those kind of pre-prepped meals since I've started cooking a little more seriously since I've moved to the US. Also, like you stated, making food in bulk and saving that for later(in the freezer/fridge) for me at least is more cost efficient than buying pre-packed meals.
I'd also thank you Adam. You've made me more aware of more easy-to-make savory dishes I can prepare all by myself with ingredients that are available at my grocery store. I've attempted to replicate your grilled cheese recipe but with brioche bread(instead of buns). I used a lid(that perfectly fitted around the bread to compress it) as my weight, and it eas the best grilled cheese I've ever had in my life. Thank you. Your work is important to us. Keep going.
at first it was "why cook at home" then it just turned into "why"
I didn't ask for this
We went from Adam Ragusea to VSauce real quick over here.
Tbh I didn’t expect a Maximilian fan to watch a genre like this on RUclips. Oh yea yea
We took the scenic route I believe. Clever advert for Hello Fresh, they have found other people to film for them outside of vlog channels and instapot communities.
@@danielepetecca5764 he's a former professor and it definitely feels like an existentialist lecture sometimes. I mean this as a compliment, cus I love it
Title: what’s the point of cooking at home?
3 and a half minutes in: this is a discussion about the meaning of life
Devan Devan looked like he was about to breakdown in the closing shot
This is Culinary Vsauce
Can't really live without food so he's got a point
Devan Devan well I mean it basically boils down to that if you think about the point of anything.
exactly at 3:36
"The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors". That quote really struck a chord with me, Adam. I wholeheartedly feel the same way. And you inspire me to experiment and just to get in the kitchen as a whole, a lot. Thank you.
Would totally buy, if there was a tshirt that said that.
It's interesting, that doesn't ring true for me at all. Maybe that's an American/immigrant thing, trying to hark back to a sense of cultural identity. But as an English guy living in England, I'm literally surrounded by my cultural identity... maybe if I moved to a different country I'd feel differently.
For me I cook because a) the food I make at home is so much tastier than pre prepared ready meals from the supermarket. And b) because here eating out at restaurants is crazy expensive if you want food that's even moderately healthy.
Hit me where it counts too. My grandmother taught me how to cook and shared a few recipes that had been her grandmother's. A few weeks ago I taught my grand niece one of these recipes. I spoke the same words my grandmother had spoken to me, which were probably the same that she had heard from her grandmother who was a woman born over 200 years ago. I was floored when I realized I had completed a direct link between my grand niece and an ancestor 7 generations back. Cosmic stuff.
@@PureMetalNS when I go to my stove I convene with my memories of my parents' food and my grandma's food.
Unless I missed it, you forgot the most important one: it's exactly as healthy as you want it to be. Controllable whole foods go into your meal.
Yeah i think home cooking is a great way to damage controll when you crave unhealthy food. For example when I make stereotypical fast food at home I usually use much healthier iongridients as well as for example dring fresh juice insteas of soda.
Yeah I don't know how you can casually forget nutrition as a reason to cook when it's kind of the whole point of eating.
@@kajetanradulski9267 A great example of junk food being (slightly) less problematic while cooking at home is making our own whipped cream. That involves like 2 ingredients, heavy cream and sugar. But store bought whipped cream has high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils plus many other things. A lot of store bought foods are just scary science experiments!
This is exactly what I was thinking the whole way through. I can control the amount of butter, oil, salt, sugar etc. That goes into my meal (and still make it taste great).
Very important in an age where you have no idea what you're putting in your body when you buy premade food and colorectal cancer cases are skyrocketing.
@@CookiiDot lmao yeah literally, i kept waiting for that one to come up. still waiting
"Why I season my life and not my food." - Adam Ragusea
One of few good and funny meme about this
I think this comment deserves much more attention.
Lol nice one.
Ah, the spice of life
"What's the point of cooking at home anymore?"
1 month later: I think you got your answers now...
Jason Ponciano LMFAOOOO
I was thinking something similar when this popped up in my recommended today Jason Ponciano.
Yeah this video did not age well with the times
:)
....
....
:(
I was going to comment something similar. I was like “Gee, this sure aged poorly xD”.
That last part about cuisine being a living, breathing, connection to your family history really means a lot to me. I grew up eating food prepared by my Chinese grandparents, but never learned how to make any of it. Today as an adult, in my pursuit of recreating the beloved flavors of my youth, ive grown closer to my relatives’ culture.
Why did you feel the need to describe a plate of food as living and breathing
Every Asian kid, ever: *well, duhhhhh*
What a dumb and pompous explanation.
Your comment is interesting because for me, while as a kid I spent a lot of time helping my parents and grandparents cook traditional meals, I never really wrote any of them down. When my grandparents started passing away, I was left with only those memories and old hand-written cookbooks they brought with them to the US. Unfortunately, by this point the grandparents I had left were cenile to the point of not being able to read their own recipes, so I was still left with just the texts on their own, to decrypt (grandma wrote Russian cursive with a dip pen, to give you an idea), translate, transcribe, recreate, and refine for my kids someday. Being left with the old cookbooks, which were written in my grandparents' prime, I get to experience a side of them I would have been way too young to know irl. And on top of that, it's become a joint effort among me, my brother, and my cousins to revive the culinary legacies of our ancestors, which has brought us closer than most other mutual interests.
@@sebaschan-uwu It's a friggin metaphor
I remember once, I asked my mom why she was so insistent in me learning how to cook, more out of curiosity than anything. Her answer was "Well, what are you gonna do when you want something I make and I'm not around to make it?". At the time, I understood it as just my mom wanting me to not depend on someone else to be well fed, but later on in life, when I had moved out, I understood what she had really meant. And I realized it once when I made a certain soup she makes when she was sick. What she was trying to impart me with was the ability, but moreso the emotional satisfaction, of giving out nourishment. I cannot tell you the joy I felt seeing that I had managed to not only replicate what my mom made, but improve on it enough that she asked me what I had done differently. Seeing that something I made had a direct impact in her wellbeing made me want to do it more, and learn many other ways to do that for others, and of course, myself.
Aside from that, there's a phrase I really like that goes "Cooking is a rebellion, and farming reassurance" (not sure who said it, if you know please lmk who it is). Sure you can buy that chicken premade. Sure you can just buy a cake from a bakery. Anyone with money can do that. But what if they can't sell you what you want when you want it? What if what you want is unexistant? Why, you can just _make it yourself!_ Specifically with food, learning even the basics gives you an enormous amount of freedom, but more importantly, it gives you _context_ . You know yourself better, you know what flavours you like, you know how to get it, and you gain understanding, appreciation and curiosity of how others use that freedom.
This is such a beautiful explanation. Thanks
I resonated with your comment a lot. I loved my grandmother's cooking when she was still around, and I'm glad that she taught me how to cook the things she used to cook. Because now every time I cook something she used to, I am immediately taken back to my childhood when she was still around and cooked for the family. I remember the aromas, fragrances and sounds of the oil popping just like it was yesterday, though she has already been laid to rest for 7 years now. Not only can I cook my favorite dishes, it also an opportunity to take me back in time like a time machine and feel closer to her whenever I miss her.
"What's the point of cooking at home?"
_Nervously looks at bank account_
Haha i bet this will be the top comment
Lmao
😳
I haven't seen you for a while Justin.
I HAVE A CRUSH ON YOU
Why I cook at home: to have fun, to be challenged, to learn, and to feed and entertain my loved ones.
All great reasons.
Why I cook my home, not my food
And to make some really good food.. If you know how to cook
And because I know what’s in it
How wholesome
I started cooking at home for money-saving reasons, but I also realized it helped me overcome some of my disordered eating patterns, it's like a weird mental glitch where I stop thinking of food as "morally bad" if it's something I made myself from scratch/saw it from start to finish
I know this is two years old but, stumbling upon it today, it's made me come to some realizations about myself. I do not particularly enjoy cooking, so a lot of the meals I make for myself are cheap, large batches with whatever seasoning and ingredients I happen to have on hand. I do not consider myself a cook, and I'm often embarrassed of how my utilitarian cooking makes me look to friends and family. I often am jealous of my friends who can cook and host dinner parties featuring numerous fancy dishes with their cultural flair attached. while I, at best, can bring some flavorful pickled eggs to a gathering... I realized this is largely because that's how my parents and grandparents cooked for the kids growing up and even family gatherings had these simple utilitarian dishes featured heavily. It's what was passed down to me and what I look for in both myself and my meals... Everything about me and my personality is both utilitarian and simple... I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but I am just noticing the through line from my cooking habits to my entire upbringing... Thanks for this video.
Efficiency to the max, shout out to the folks who never let their pressure cooker whistle and thus valuable thermal mass/temperature as steam
As one who is on the more fancy side, I want to be more practical, like you are.
I don't like cooking for people. I enjoy baking for others, but not cooking meals. I am fully aware that the stuff I cook for myself is either incredibly bland or just weird for most people. The times I do cook, it's so I can eat, not show off. A whole gutted fish slow cooked on a grill, or a potato(like just a potato, not a fancy potato), or plain rice with frozen veggies, or the bean/onion/jalapeno/mushroom reduced mush I make. It's for me to eat. This is not something that was passed down, my mom can cook. This is just the style of cooking I've developed to have something to eat when I do cook instead of eating frozen meals.
Start of the video: "What's the point of cooking at Home?"
Halfway through: *_What is cooking? What is life?_*
Halfway through: “What’s the point?”
What is love?
Baby don’t hurt me.
No more
@@thegoatman9231 You ruined it, it's "don't hurt me" again
Rich Brian said in Hot Ones 'Cooking for someone is such a pure thing. It's like saying I love you, without actually saying that'
That's such an Asian mom thing lmao
oh you mean Sir Richard Chigga?
He's such a king
@@cranbell99 *Ser Richard Chigroe
Partially why I like the city my families from. The fast food is generally better than the city I live in now. The same can be said for the people.
Adding a few more potatoes to my burrito is such a subtle thing to some but when one skimps on them and burns the tortilla you notice these things.
"The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors" Wow I love that quote, almost made me tear up. As a mixed person I relate to that a lot as I feel the most connection with my cultures when I cook those cuisines. Great way to learn about why they made stuff in certain ways and the limitations they faced
the stove is the shrine where i convene with some asian dudes ancestors usually.. its kind of strange as a German, but i just love asian food.. all kinds of it
that last part got me a little emotional.
Me & my wife cook together quite frequently, and at least 50% of the food we make is the food we ate as kids at ours mothers & grandmothers' homes. this is truly the way we keep them and our family history & culture alive in our lives and hearts.
“the stove is the shrine where i convene with my ancestors”. what an absolutely gorgeous quote
he damn near brought a tear to my eye with that one
He says at least one memorable thing every episode. The guy is a Genius and a Poet!
I didn't have the words at the time to articulate it, but this is exactly how I felt after making bread for the first time. Bread (or at least some form of flour and water) has been the staple of nearly every civilization, and baking bread for the first time felt like a right of passage, a coming of age into humanity, taking part in one of the foundations of what it means to be human. It was a surprisingly emotional experience.
"Me, my forebears and my descendants - we're all meatballs swimming in that sauce."
Yup, and I won't be looking at meatballs in sauce the same way ever again.
Stoves are tight
Cooking helped my depression. Gave me a sense of accomplishment and reminded me I didn't suck at everything.
hell yeah GOAL getting!
But it food taste bad
@@goblinslayer2318 It won't if you have enough practice
@@goblinslayer2318
Then you don't make it again or you figure out what you might have done wrong and you will it change the next time you cook it.
Absolutely agree. It helps keep the bite out of general anxiety and worthlessness and while I do enjoy writing as a hobby, baking and cooking are really the main pathways to satisfaction with what I make, even if I'm just blindly following a recipe.
I wasn't expecting to be moved like this by a Ragusea video.
I'm something like 6 generations removed from my family who came to America from Lebanon. Food is the only thing I have left of that ancestry. I just got done rolling Grape Leaves and layering phyllo for Baklava for Thanksgiving last week, and no matter how time consuming it is, I'll keep doing it every year and teaching my kids the same.
I deeply appreciate your mix of practical philosophy, belief observation and questioning, and passion for food and quality information. You’re an excellent model!
I'm 19. This past year I cooked Christmas dinner for my entire family of 10. It was very tough and very stressful but the payoff of seeing everyone go for second helpings was priceless. That feeling is unmatched by material gifts and presents. I plan on doing it again next year.
Tweaks keep up the good work it just gets better and better the food is always better hand picked ingredients and hand cooked by you
@@kiwisiwi8356 Yeah I agree, I made lasagna and my grandmother was very skeptical of my abilities to make fresh noodles. To say the least I think I impressed her.
There's nothing better than seeing people truly enjoy and appreciate your efforts. Makes all the work to prepare the food worth it.
I'm 37 and still learning the art of cooking - I cooked Thanksgiving 2019 dinner for my wife and her parents. I was stressed as well but felt amazing to get everything done properly. It came out perfect too (except the damn gravy was room temp instead of hot). Anyways, cooking for a family of 10 must have been rough, great work.
r/humblebrag
“The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors”. I felt that.
I did as well and I shed a tear for it. Have lived over 4000 miles from my family and culture longer than 20 years. Most of my culture have been slowly stripped away year after year over that time. The one thing I preserve is the food of my heritage culture. At the stove that is the shrine where I too convene with my ancestors. For me, it has meaning. And I shed a tear when I heard it in the video. It just summed up why I try to preserve that last vestige of my culture or it will be lost.
it just a fire
@@jamesjacob9632 Yeah, and we’re all meat sacks on a floating rock. Don’t deprive others of their simple comforts and joys just because you can’t relate. Find your own.
@@biancamlf288 I look for real comfort and joy, not a fire.
@@jamesjacob9632 I dunno, I'm sitting in front of a literal wood fire that is the main thing that keeps my family warm right now, full on a meal we all made together, so it's hard to say any of this isn't real comfort and joy. But the heat source is essential to all of this.
Also, side note. I heard Adam crack a little talking about the original point here. So, he's either a pretty good actor (probably true) or this really meant a lot (well, I come from pretty similar circumstances, and live similarly, and food is pretty important to feeling a sense of "home"), so...yeah.
I really resonated to your point of cooking as as a way to relate to family. My family is from Israel but I have only been there a couple times in my life compared to my parents living their childhoods there, the way I connected to my family was with the morning shakshuka or helping my mom with recipes. I went into college thinking I wanted to make video games, then I realized its not my forte and decided to switch to Food Science! Ur channel has been one of my inspirations on YT for both bringing recipes but also bringing the science into it. I just want to thank you for amazing work your videos have done and can't wait to try that Hello Fresh to improve my skills more :)
Mom was a chef, I've been cooking since I was 3 years old. It's also fun and much cheaper than most take out or restaurant dining. There is a very short list of things we take our or order in that are economical by the portion and we enjoy those from time to time. Cooking at home also 'feels' healthier and has a built in sense of acomplishment to it.
I think there is a 4th reason to cook at home: control over food.
It's good to have control over what goes into your food and how you prepare that food because 1) people could have dietary restrictions based on reasons for health (such as allergies, celiac disease, nutritional imbalance, etc.), and 2) people may not be allowed to consume certain foods or ingredients because of their beliefs (such as pork not being allowed in kosher diets, alcohol in halal meals, or animal or animal byproducts in vegan diets). When you eat out, there is no telling what the eatery in question does or puts into your food, unless you go to a place where you can watch the chef cook your food. However, when you cook at home, you are free to make adjustments or substitutions to your recipes as is required or to your preference. After all, only person who knows what you need/want/are allowed to eat is yourself.
As interesting as all the other reasons are, I believe control over what you eat is the most practical reason for cooking at home.
This is the sole reason I cook at home.
Yep for me this is the big one.
This is absolutely true, and my main reason for cooking - I can make things healthier myself and it can actually be fairly affordable to do so if you do it properly
Prepared foods tend to have way too much sodium in them. Also, cooking for yourself can just be fun, okay?
@@16BitDungeon while important, no, this is not the only reason that matters.
I live alone. Cooking at home is part of a nightly ritual that keeps me grounded in self care & self sufficiency.
I've seen quite a few of your videos the last few days, and i must say, i hate cooking videos but ur videos are amazing. They aren't about what to cook, but the science of everything kitchen related. And the way you transmit ur thought process and reasoning is just so clear. It's really amazing.
I cook as a form of social gathering. It's an event. We get together, have some wine or beer while we wait for the food , and continue to have some wine or beer while we eat the food. Then... Someone else washes the dishes 😁
wow i really needed to see this video. i have always loved cooking but being a woman in south asia, it became this thing that was expected from me so i started to resent it. i'm in the process of falling in love with it again and this video made me so emotional about it! thank you 💜
I’m surprised you didn’t mention control over the quality of ingredients.
the quality can very depending on the season. at times the best is the stuff you would not look at other times of the year. Also lower quality level maybe better for some dishes. Whenever I watch the TV chefs say the source the best ingredients like they are saying you only get highest standard. I know that is BS because their are days at the Market nothing is at its best. They have to take what they can get. If it's not that great you get a stew or anything that they can chop it up over season and hide the looks of the food.
@@faervas1234 cook in season and that's not an issue
@@Bluebelle51 In season still doesn't guarantee high quality. The produce very while in season. We have in seasonal fruit but it's not ready to be eaten. My father shops everyday for our meals. Their are days that the quality in general is not the best. On those days we more likely eat pre-done meals, a selection from the freezer section or eat out.
@@faervas1234 it may not be elitest top quality all the time but its still higher quality than fast food.
The social justice aspect and inequity of people who cook is a more important aspect.
Many, many years ago when I was young and single, a friend of mine told me that if I wanted to impress a certain woman, I needed to clean my apartment, learn to cook and serve a good meal and sit at the table afterwards and engage in conversation. It worked like a charm and we have been married forty plus years. Cooking and eating together, both with family and friends, is one of the essentials of life together. Teach you children how to cook, especially your sons.
40 years ago was totally a different generation though
Well nowadays it's much more common for men to learn cooking. People are more likely to live alone, lockdowns, Home office, and most women don't like to babysit men anymore. Cooking is more a minimum requirement now, not something that sets you apart.
@@almond3963 it's still very true, it's how i scored my first date earlier this year
That's a sweet story!
@NooneImportant what are you on about, being able to provide well for your family is like the most basic of good qualities
I've recently found your channel and been bingeing this style of your videos - research-heavy and informative. I must say this has to be my favourite so far. I always stood by: "you gotta learn to cook to feed yourself and it's cheaper" BUT maybe that's because I don't mind eating the same thing 4-5 days for lunch (batch cooking) and I liked trying new things. I would eat out to "try things that were too expensive or too long to be worth it at home". But, when in context of my friends/family who prefer to eat new/"fresh" food everyday, the time cost and variety of foods must really add up compared to just getting prepared grocery meals which are still far cheaper than restaurants.
Adam! I know this is an old video but you really touched me at the end. I did laugh out loud when you said it but it was laughter of joy.
You help so many people feed their loved ones in a better way. Thank you.
Holy crap, what a fantastic episode. "The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors." That hit hard for someone who barely knows his history. I cook to feel the feeling I got when I ate my grandparents food. The rich and wholeness of simple food cooked with love, prepared with me in mind. Im not the greatest with my words or emotions but I want people to be able to taste how much I care about them. Thank you for helping me put this thought into words.
Yeah, that sentence was absolutely gorgeous.
Well said yourself
His ending rant was awesome.
Historic knowledge is very powerful.
Big brain
I made meatballs for the first time several months ago, on my own stove, in my own home. I put leftovers in some tupperware, and washed the pan... and I broke down into tears.
It's hard to explain concisely, but I couldn't use our kitchen. We either ate junk food, or I made a cheese sandwich (if I could even get to the microwave). I grew up in a home worthy of "hoarders" and was constantly told it was 'my fault' it was that way.
Honestly, even just making a turkey sandwich feels like victory and validation.
I cook because it's beautiful in a way that most people just take for granted.
That remember me what my dad told me about America "No wonder their kitchens are always clean, they bought gigantic kitchens and never used them".
That's a biased opinion of a slightly american-hater french, but I think it describes at least a part of the americans ^^'
I cook mostly by guessing what the ingredients are or what things I like to eat then use my imagination. It doesn’t always work but it’s still fun and I enjoy it too.
You know that I admire you for muster your courage to cook at home after for several months of not using the kitchen which most people took it for granted and this pandemic made us rethink what are our priorities.
Thank you for sharing this breakthrough. Life is a journey of personal growth, you have discovered something amazing about yourself. Not just cooking but that you are not the sum of other peoples opinions. You are what you make yourself. I am so happy for you, keep exploring!
Shit... Keep at it man. For me it was steak. Gives you confidence.
My favorite video so far. Thank You. Q: Why do I cook at home? A: After 30 years or so, I often ask myself that question. I still love the creative process. I love the opportunity to recreate a moment and share it with others. I also still have a family that needs to eat every day, though my teenage daughter increasingly wants to create her own meals. I used to cook not only because I love to eat, but also as a man, there was such acclaim that came with cooking every night for your family. I get less pleasure from that as I grow older. As I look at my stripped-down Thanksgiving menu, with elements from generations of family recipes, new influences from around the globe, and nods to American tradition, I realize that I cook because I love it. Thanks again for the video.
Haven’t watched yet but my reasons are 1) you know what’s in your food 2) you can tailor your meals exactly to your needs and desires 3) you can use fresher ingredients than restaurant/premade foods 4) I just enjoy learning to cook lol
All of this pretty much goes without saying and homie is either rich af or wanted to rack up views by being purposefully inflammatory so that he can afford not to eat at home.
Cooking at home helps to enforce the concept of "home" As a single woman I create comfort and warmth in my house by cleaning, cooking, gardening, entertaining, etc. I rarely eat prefabricated food. I choose to eat "home" created meals or dine out with friends and family. Cooking for myself and others is a gesture of love. It prevents feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Whoa, that comment was surprisingly deep.
Yeah, tell that to my roommates.
And what if you live alone? Cooking at home can actually wind up being very wasteful, because grocery stores tend to only sell certain ingredients in bulk. The most irritating thing is produce like spinach and lettuce. I only use those things for stuff like sandwiches, meaning if I want a sandwich a certain day I only need a small handful of leaves. The stores forces you to buy a huge bag or carton. Now you're stuck with all this lettuce or spinach, and are forced to use it in dishes you don't want to, or throw it all out.
That's why eating out at times can make more sense.
When it comes down to it, more and more people ARE only cooking for themselves, cuz marrying and having children is making less sense economically in this day and age.
Stores need to get with it and start selling ingredients in smaller amounts.
@@nahor88 go to a farm market and butcher instead. It will always be more convenient not to, and you can purport as many excuses as you need to justify it. ;)
@@RealHypocrisy you literally just spelled out the reason not to... it's inconvenient, especially when you work full time hours.
The reasons I cook at home:
1. Flavor control. You like your food more acidic than most, I like my food spicier than usual. I can do that at home without having to ask a waiter for a bottle of Tabasco or shaking some very inert pepper onto my plate.
2. Taste. I'm a huge believer that labor adds flavor. I don't like steak very much. I enjoyed the one I seared back last Friday for Valentine's day and I'm willing to bet it wasn't the rosemary-garlic butter baste, it was because I did it.
3. I can make pretty good food in my kitchen for what has to be a third of the calories if I were to go somewhere and get it.
4. It’s cheaper
I learned how to cook watching my mother in the kitchen, as also asking her how to make those things she provided us since ever. I love to see how ingredients change in the process and I do like very much inventing new recipes just imagining how this would work with that. Almost always the result is good enough. I also have some health issues, and cooking my own food allows me control what I use to eat. My mother was a very skillful cook and close to the end of her life, being hard to make her eat, she always would eat something better if I did that. She would complain about all minor errors I could have made 😄, teaching how I could do that better. I’m proud to say that I was the one who cooked the last meal she ate at a table. She said it was perfect 🥳. She passed way a few days later, and I keep on doing many things like she used to do, also things I invented myself.
"The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors."
I might need to learn to cross stitch so I can turn that into a wall hanging for my kitchen, lol. Thanks for a thoughtful & thought-provoking video!
Ikr that quote is golden
For me, living in rural Greece, cooking at home is the only viable way I can eat cheaply and healthily at the same time.
I am interested, how do you get your vegetables and meat? Do you you grow them yourself and buy the meat by some farmers/people you know, or do you have to buy all the stuff at the super market?
@@moronsmorons8913 I buy most vegetables that I eat from my local farmer's market (I believe that's the proper english term). My grandmother has a chicken coup and that's where I get chicken and eggs from. I don't consume red meat. My family also produce our own olive oil which is not extremely uncommon here.
@@PSspecialist
Nice!
Ελλαδάρα!🇬🇷
Same is true in the US 😂
My mother caught the "Julia Child virus" when I was very young, possibly as soon as _The French Chef_ went on the air in 1963. Maybe even before. I do remember her six-foot-high book case full of cookbooks, and her cross-reference index cards (in a repurposed library card file) that helped her find anything and everything in many years' back issues of _Gourmet._
She began teaching me to cook when I was twelve or thirteen. I still remember some of that first meal: steak and Potatoes Anna. The potato dish was beautiful to look at as well as to eat. I was dazzled that I could put together something so complex.
A few years later I was a young wife cooking much more simply. One night I was slopping together some tomato sauce, cheese and canned minestrone, when I thought: "I was a better cook when I was twelve." So I went back to the path my mother showed me years before. I found recipes of my own: Murgh Masala, b'stilla, chicken stuffed with vegetables and lemon peel with coffee-and-cream gravy, and so many other dishes. My sister (whom my mother also educated in the kitchen) once asked me why I had to spend two hours cooking dinner every night. "It's how I respect my family," I said. That's still true.
It's also a major creative outlet. It's a daily opportunity to exercise skill and power.
Michaele Maurer Creative outlet and caring for loved ones sums up my reasons pretty well. Very well put!
Nice story
" 'It's how I respect my family' " oooh that's good.
As a single dude who primarily cooks for himself, I'm going to adapt your answer for the next time someone again asks why I spend so much time in the kitchen by saying "It's how I respect myself"
Basomic 👏👏👏
Perfectly said : and how I respect what I put into my body ......
This was such a great video. Thank you for not being afraid to dive into a variety of topics
This has got to be one of Adam's best videos. The content is impactful, and the language is full of wit.
“The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors”
Love it
As someone with now only one living grandparent, I cannot agree more.
After watching a few of his videos, I have come to a conclusion. He's the Vsause of cooking channels.
@@portablerefrigerator4902 what does that even mean?
@@chucktesta2564 portable fridge is the vsauce of garbage RUclips comments
@@portablerefrigerator4902 Like you
If he's the Vsauce, where's "Hey! Vsauce! Michael here"
@@SweetOdinsRavens he's keemstar
13:15 With that "yes it will change," it sounded like he got emotional and real at that moment
My high school home economics teacher gave my the confidence that if I had a recipe I could make it. But I was very regimented in that I had to make it as it was written. Later in life a beautiful brit named Nigella Lawson gave me free range to experiment, she said something like "a recipe is only a roadmap, you can choose to change or substitute an ingredient that you may not have." That simple sentence in a cooking show freed my culinary creativity. Now I see a recipe and think, well i'll do this and change that, I try to make it per the recipe the first time but after that, no limits. And thank you for your show, knowledge is power. Thank you.
“What’s the point of cooking at home?” **checks on instant noodles**
LOL I watched this video while doing something similar! A bagged "pour it into boiling water with a little butter and simmer for 20 mins" kind of meal. lol
instant noodles are heaven sent haha
Also also: The "it's cheaper" aspect absolutely applies more outside of the US. The US seems to be set up so people cook as little as they can.
@@vlc-cosplayer sometimes in supermarkets there is food that is already cooked, I guess he refers to that kind of food
@@vlc-cosplayer with the way american waiters have to hustle for a tip? Probably :/
(And I mean, if you were to make the food at home you would also have to wait for it to cook, unless you're just eating microwave food)
Aye this guy lives near a Publix it seems. They make good food imo
Not exactly true. Some foods can be cheaper to make at home (like a steak). And some foods would be cheaper to have the store cook (like the chicken, since they can cook a huge amount and it'd cost them very little).
Thanks to Google Earth I am can through the suburbs of many many US cities where it is practically impossible to buy fresh food and ingredients to cook at home - not to talk about for a reasonable price. Almost nowhere - and I am talking southeast Asia or South America and Africa - is it that difficult to get fresh food BEFORE tripping over some kind of fast food joint.
AMAZING video. I enjoy all of your videos but this one literally made me pause and take notes. This is a really amazing perspective. Thanks for this. Wow!!!
Not gonna lie the end made me tear up... family is always the reason I've been into cooking as well, and it feels so good to connect to your roots and where you came from. And while that pot of sauce is simmering, or that chicken is roasting, you think, "How lucky am I to have learned all of this stuff?". Love your videos, man... I know I'm 3 years late. I just wanted to get this out.
“Not that Oxford.” Made me smile. I went to undergrad at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Which was always a special moment when folks would ask me where I was going to college at. 😂
I grew up in State College, PA. "No, I mean where are you FROM." "That's where I'm from. That's the name of the town." It always becomes a who's on first routine.
i was talking to a girl who went to miami university, in ohio. i don't remember how this came up, but she said something along the lines of "our mascot was..." and i said "the dolphins?"
madeline s. m. Oops! I was attending when Miami University changed from Redskins to Redhawks. But I remember friend back home thinking I was in Florida and not Ohio. The school in Ohio is so old, Florida has yet to be a state. The fact that it was Oxford, Ohio was icing on the cake 😂
I genuinely thought he was talking about the famous English Oxford University
No way dude I'm from state college too that's awesome.
"The stove is the shrine where i convene with my ancestors" lmao, suprisingly heartful and true.
In spanish the term for "home" is "hogar" but that term's original meaning is "hearth". The stove (or whatever cooking source for your era and culture) has always been the heart of a family house, around which we all gather and share our lives.
Even more, when we gather with other people, we usually eat something together, at least share a cup of coffee or tea. Food and cooking is bonding.
Ngl, I kinda teared up at that line.
It is so important to cook at home, in my opinion. I started cooking at home because I felt that I could make better and healthier food at home. The connection with family came with that. My grandma gave me a cookbook that she gave to her mom back when my grandma lived in Canada. The book was sold as a fundraiser for the union, of which some of my relatives were members. Some of their recipes are in the book. I often cook from it as the recipes still make efficient use of affordable ingredients and all of the recipes have been great. I usually tinker with them a bit.
I was not expecting one of the most impassioned rants about home cooking I had ever heard around the 12:45 mark. I have a feeling that Adam went of script a little bit and then kept going, until he could no more. This one really felt like it ended with a mic drop, and and I will carry these words for the rest of my life.
I have only one living grandparent left, and she's now in assisted living and unable to cook much for herself anymore. She was never what I would consider a skilled home cook, but she always loved making brunch. I always think of that whenever bacon and eggs are the order of Sunday morning, and it saddens me now that she's more than likely made brunch for my family and I for the last time.
Of my deceased grandparents on my mother's side, both were somewhat disconnect from their own heritage roots for various reasons, but my grandfather was born in Scotland. One of the only recipes that were truly passed down to me, through my mom, is a simple, 3 ingredient Scottish shortbread recipe. We make it every year for Christmas without fail
For me, I cook because I'm curious, and because it's a space to weave a bit of creativity into something that I would have to do anyway. But more-over, it's because when I feed someone else with my cooking, I feed my soul. It resonates at a deep level to be able to create, and provide for my family in that way. It allows me to tell them without words how much I care.
Reasons for cooking at home:
-Avoiding the excess salt of most restaurant meals.
-Having your food cooked the way you like it.
-Avoiding the expense of good restaurant food.
-Avoiding food allergens. I'm allergic to yeast and corn, both of which are in most processed food. I find it easier to work around such allergies at home.
Lois Avci i think you need stop going fast food joints for meals or go to good decent local restaurant not a chain restaurant.
@@mohammedhussain6749 to respond to your point, I'll address each of the original comments;
Most restaurants, like it or not, add a lot of salt to dishes. You can ask for less salty sure but if they're cooking at any kind of scale likely a lot of it is part of the dish. (even more true if the restaurant isn't making all of its own sauces etc, salt keeps things preserved)
Most restaurants can adapt to taste as needed so it's valid that you can normally get food the way you want it at a restaurant, no argument here.
That being said, most restaurants that are good about the two above points are also not exactly affordable. Anything over $10 a plate, it tends to be cheaper to make at home (at least as long as you're thinking like Adam does)
For the last point, avoiding allergens in a kitchen is difficult, especially if it's something as commonplace as corn. If an ingredient is in everything (including the oil) it becomes hard to eat out without it being a major hassle.
@@shalimarlake7852 not all of them. i bet you only go to chain restaurants for you to say that.
@@mohammedhussain6749 Who said anything about fast food? The bread at a posh restaurant has as much yeast as a MacDonalds hamburger bun. Nice places, too, thicken soups and sauces with cornstarch, use white distilled vinegar (a fermented corn product, so corn and yeast both), use greens washed with citric acid (usually made from corn), and so on. Rather than perpetually quiz wait staff (what kind of oil do you use for frying? do you use enriched flour, which always contains some cornstarch as a buffer? is there any vinegar in the soup? etc. etc. ) it can be less annoying to cook at home.
Are you ALLERGIC to corn, or sensative to it? Does eating corn cause histamine release? Anaphylaxis? People throw the word Allergy around too much. Especially in a world where, overnight, all of a sudden, no one can eat Gluten without feeling "sick".
Why cook at home?
After watching kitchen nightmares I've lost my trust in humanity
Take that a step further and go work in restaurants for a good 6-12 months and you'll probably be apprehensive to eat out for the rest of your life 😂
Facts
Dude same I’ve been watching it on repeat and am terrified of dirty kitchens
Amazing video. It really hit me.
I don't have a family connection with cooking. Neither my mom or dad taught me how to cook, nor was there any specific dishes that we ate. As soon as I was able to cook, around 11 years old, I was told to open a cook book and figure something out. The chief reason has always been cost. Going out to eat at a restaurant was an extravagant expense that we rarely afforded ourselves (even the "cheapest" restaurant). Then, as money was slightly less tight, it was health. Then, taste.
Now, it's to control what I eat, in a way that vibes with my ethics. I mostly cook for my wife too, and there's an element of desire to be seen as a contributing member in our relationship. Convenience too, as opposed to getting dressed and going out all the time (which gets expensive). And taste too... I rarely find (an affordable) restaurant that also serves tasty healthy food.
But, I'm going to travel to thailand for a few months, and I plan to eat out basically every day, since it will be a new culture, new tastes, and I want to take in as much as possible, to explore, and food is honestly a huge part of the cultural makeup of a place.
Are you in Thailand now?
What a speech. Made me tear up a bit. You're such an inspiration. Thank you Adam.
I feel like he's spiraling further into madness with every title of his videos
It's the lack of white wine vinegar
Up next: _Drums... drums in the dark_
Nah. Just trying too hard to be introspective and making his channel more than just cooking and different than Good Eats.
The white wine fume in his home is getting thicker.
Fax man 🤣
This made me realize how well done these videos are. Adam covers nearly every single viewpoint and argument and backs it by an actual scholar.
I cook at home because it allows me to track my nutritional intake. Knowing the ratios of macronutrients going into my foods helps me keep up with my daily nutritional goals. And while most fast-food restaurants will have this info somewhere on their website, dine-in restaurant will typically only tell you calorie counts, if even that. Home cooking just makes it easier to control what I'm putting into my body.
The stove being the shrine where you convene with your ancestors... That almost brought a tear to my eye. That's a really eloquent way to describe why you cook.
When I was 16, my Korean mother taught me how to make kimchi. My mom learned how to make kimchi from her grandmother, who was born during the reign of King Gojong, the last king of the Joseon dynasty (a 500 year old kingdom largely responsible for the modern traditions of Korean society and culture). Her grandma learned kimchi making from her mother, and so forth. My mom's teaching process with me was, in essence, a reconstruction of her experience with her grandmother. I was learning how to feed myself, yes. But I was also witnessing living history, and absorbing the values of my family's culture. There is a deep emphasis in Korean culture on the important of ancestry. Passing down kimchi making from her ancestors was something very dear to my mom, which came across very clearly while she was teaching me. I could honestly say, as a once irreverent Korean-American with little regard for the practices of my people, that for the first time, I felt my ancestors smiling down upon me. Recreating this feeling is why I cook. Truly, my kitchen is too a "shrine to convene with [my] ancestors." Thank you for another wonderful video, Adam.
I feel the same when I make the food of my people. Bologna sandwiches.
Sweet comment.ty!
I appreciate this sort of culture. Though it sucks that culture is slowly falling off due to how the modern world functions
Lovely essay, Star~child. I feel that way about the chicken and dumplings my mother-in-law taught me that her Polish mother taught her and so on. It's the essence of peasant food and sooooo comforting. I can't stand kimchi, but I can relate to your story.
@@stluanne your loss. I eat that shit 3 times a day
I love the benefit of customization. I wanted dried cherries in my chocolate chip cookies, I did it. I wanted pizza with my preferred ratio of cheese to sauce, I did it. I can make what I want and that's especially great if what I want isn't available for purchase.
Same for me. I can cook all dishes I want at home, like Chick-fil-A sandwiches and Olive Garden stuff that are widely available in the US, but I can't get my hands on them during the pandemic or get them delivered to my doorstep because I live in Sweden.
Right. We can customize as per our own wish since we are the ones preparing it. But the cost effectiveness too matters when we want to do it very frequently as has been mentioned by Adam in the pinned post. IMHO, wrt most of the the items, its cost effective to prepare yourself at home if possible than to buy a precooked one from restaurant. But wrt a few items, its cost effective to purchase a readymade one looking at the the hassle in preparing it in the small quantity which we want and at the cost of its ingredients for a retail customer since the businesses purchase it in wholesale and enjoy economies of scale.
@@therewasoldcringe you're disgusting. I almost puked from reading this. Mayo? On pizza? Are you a psychopath
chocolate chip cookies with dried berries sound delicious🤤
A big thing is salt, loads of store bought ready meals and even restaurant meals are way too salty for me, I much prefer being able to control the salt myself
Nice discussion. I've made it a challenge for myself to bake the best pizza I've ever had. And honestly, apart from it being a ton of fun, I've learned a ton. I learned to make my own mozarella among others, which is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done!
Very interesting viewpoints! I cook mostly because it’s more affordable to cook at home for a big family. Also, I like fresh, organic, minimally processed ingredients. Most of the time I hate cooking and cleaning 😅 but it’s certainly a good feeling to have my family eating fresh homemade meals. I would enjoy help in the kitchen but my kids don’t enjoy cooking and helping, for them it’s a chore. I have some European roots so I enjoyed exploring foods and recipes from basically all over Europe. I’m a big fan of Asian Cuisine, so I cook some Asian dishes as well.
Why cook at home?
Answer: save money.
EDIT: I have watched the video all the way through but I still disagree with the points
i kinda agree but when you buy the stuff at markets it gets expensive like costco *BUT* if you eat fast food a lot it's really cheap and probably will never reach the amount of money you spend on groceries
EDIT: Don't forget food waste
I kinda need someone to help me interpret my comment
@@jadonlee821 What do you mean? I can eat for a week by cooking at home with the money I'd spend in just a day of eating fast food. Eating out, even if it's fast food, is luxurious af.
@@masansr Amen
Watch the video, he tackled on the subject
He addresses this in the first minute. Did you watch the video?
As a grad sociologist, it’s really interesting to see a video on your channel that explores sociological elements of cooking. Really enjoyed this Adam
Just a fun question then: do you cook?😂
This is a great vid and so touching. 13 minutes flew by.
Anirudh Viswanathan LMAO not terribly well but I’m learning
I think you nailed it with the social aspect - I live pretty extremely alone and as such really struggle with finding the will to cook "properly" (from scratch). The logistics of storing leftovers are a pain and if I don't have anyone to share a meal with, I sort of object to spending longer preparing something than it'll take me to eat, unless it's something I'm doing for fun (Like the time I decided to see if I could make an entire lamb moussaka from scratch AND first principals, no recipe other than how to make a bechamel - it cost me about what I'd normally spend in a week for basically 2 days worth of food, it took an entire afternoon and I'm pretty sure I used every pan I owned. It was pretty tasty in the end but I couldn't do that on a daily basis.)
I don't have much in terms of family roots but personally I'd lived in the States, Japan and London by the time I was 10 and that influences a lot of what I choose to eat - I could easily live off salmon and rice for the rest of my life. Or PB & J.
Adam, your videos give me more enjoyment in the kitchen! Thanks for the vids and keep it up!
Fun fact: The urban free poor people of Ancient Rome frequently did not even have a kitchen at home. "Eat takeout every day" is neither a modern nor an upper-class phenomenon...
My thoughts exactly. In many parts of China, people may or may not cook at home. His model is very European, which isn't a bad thing per se. It largely depends on what the street culture of the group is like. In Malaysia, there is little reason to cook. Food is inexpensive because they can make it at enormous scales. This fish ball seller could make hundreds and only requires a few ingredients.
I was gonna mention alot of Asian cultures had noodle houses in their small rural neighborhoods, it was sort of a community center/canteen for the town, you'd eat every meal there and probably lived in a 1 roomstraw hut
Pompeii tour guides said they found evidence of these taverns. Similar foods/ingredients to what people in that area eat now. Olives, beads, meats, fish, and fruits/vegetables
@@nathanbrisebois8756 take out culture and just stands where people would just STAND eating their meals on sticks or in wrapped leaves ( lotus, banana)
@@nathanbrisebois8756 To give an example, this is especially true for Southeast Asian countries; we do have community canteens like hawker centers in Malaysia and Singapore, karinderyas in the Philippines, etc.
"Take me for example, I am half 3rd generation Italian American, half general issue Euro-American mutt -- that's my mom's side. I live a thousand miles from my parents and my brother and everyone I grew up with. Thanks to technological change, I live my life very differently from how my grandparents lived their lives, and compared to their grandparents, I may as well be a freakin Martian. What keeps me clinging to the tattered shreds of a cross-generational cultural identity I have left is *food.* It's cooking. It's the things my dad taught me to cook; it's the things I will teach my boys to cook. *The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors.* "
That legitimately brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for sharing it with us. Subscribed.
Huge Agree, very poetic!
Cooking, in the start, was a skill I could say I knew how to do. My parents both cook, and well. And I just wanted to join in when I was young. Now I can cook almost anything, with a recipe, which helped a ton during college and now that I moved out. Although I can't do Indian food like my parents, I can cook. I can sustain myself and I can make food taste better - it's rewarding to be able to create something, add your own spin, and then eat it and rejoice that you have actually made an edible thing for you or your friends.
What an intimate portrayal - as a recent subscriber this is my favorite video so far. Thank you for this.
I cook at home for 1: health. I know what ingredients are in my food. 2: cost. I can make a meal and eat dinner, make my lunch for work and me and my kids can eat the leftover again the next night. 3: customization. I can substitute add or take out what ever I want to make it how I like it. 4: efficiency. I can prep for the next meal while cooking one meal, I can make a pot roast while I'm at work in the slow cooker etc. 5: it's fun and relaxing. Nothing beats reaping the fruits of your labor.
So to sum up why I cook at the house: health, cost, customization, efficiency, relaxing and fun
Thank you. This video was crammed full of useless bullshit.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 Eh I think having a conversational tone gives the video more credibility than a simple list.
Hate cooking. Takes too much time
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 Why though? It was strange that he didin't mention health though... when i saw the video title i imidiatly thought of health. It's the 1st thing that popped up in my mind.
I hate cooking.
When I worked in fine dining, I asked a chef what's the secret to great restaurant food, and the answer was 'shit-loads of salt and butter'. So maybe that's a reason for home cooking.
No wonder my stomach can never handle restaurant food. Like it tastes good but I'm always paying for it a few hours later.
Meanwhile any time I cook at home, even using salt and butter, body processes it very cleanly.
Unfortunately, I also have shit-loads of salt and butter at home.
These things aren’t actually unhealthy. It’s when they are mixed too much with sugars that they become unhealthy.
@@PeteS_1994well… Shitloads of salt is of course high in sodium which can be unhealthy.
@@MasterJMR1which you have 100% control over
I would love to read a book on this topic. Thoughts, interviews, essays, recipes, all aimed towards the goal of food in modern times.
The section where you talk about scale is my biggest hurdle for cooking at home as a single person. Too cook cheaply, I have to prepare a week’s worth of food at a time, yet I will inevitably get tired of eating it before it’s all gone
That’s just not really true. Sure you have to eat the same thing every day for a few days, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat the same thing every day for a few days. I buy a cabbage for $0.80, and that’s enough vegetables for 4 dinners for me. Same with the 2 pack chicken breasts at the store. They’re usually like $7. And starches can generally be cooked on demand. I quarter the cabbage and halve the chicken breasts and one day might be fried cabbage with teriyaki chicken and white rice. The next day I might do a boiled cabbage with oven roasted chicken and roasted potatoes. The next day I could do chicken tacos with shredded raw cabbage, Mexican chicken and taco stuff. Then I could round it out with a roasted cabbage wedge and some floured and pan fried chicken with spaghetti. The rice, pasta, and potatoes in total for 4 days costs only a dollar or two. So that’s four dinners for like $15 after you account for spices and other seasonings/toppings. And I didn’t have to eat the same chicken and cabbage dish 4 days in a row.
Just freeze some and have it in a few weeks
Freeze and batch it out
Came for the intriguing title, stayed for the invitation to stare at the wall for fifteen minutes after watching, questioning why it is that I do the things I do and wondering exactly what parts of me do and don't feel fulfilled when I cook under what circumstances, both personal and professional (culinary school is a *hell* of a ride when you first get in and the social dynamics in your class start to take form). The "am I killing myself on this thing because I think it will impress someone" made me gulp. So uh, yeah. Thanks for this. Sincerely.
"What's the point of cooking at home?"
*Nods while looking at kitchen full of dishes*
If you don't have a dishwasher, you can just wash anything you use right away instead of doing it all at once.
@@GrinFlash007 Modern dishwashers use less than 10 liters of water for one full load of pans and other dishwasher detergent rinsed-off dishes. One might keep that in mind when washing dishes by hand - probably using too much detergent and water.
I love the process, it has become a hobby of mine. I love learning how so many different dishes are made, from pastries, to curries, to breads, to soups, and more! Weirdly, I even found a way to enjoy cleaning. I have a bluetooth speaker in my kitchen, I just kick on jazz radio, and go into my happy place.
The great thing about cooking as a hobby is the almost immediate gratification (for most dishes). I love playing music, but unlike something like guitar which can take a long time to feel good about, almost anyone can learn to start cooking no matter their skill level. It's a great social activity, too.
My personal big tip is to get the right tools for the job, which are very rarely the cheapest, but good tools are worth it because rather than get in the way, they make the process smoother and more enjoyable.
Hi Adam, love your content and long-time devout follower here. This is an intriguing episode and hits home for me. I am the cook in the family. I would love to order commercially available meals on a regular basis; however, here are the gaps I still cannot resolve that maybe you can provide insight on:
1) Regional cuisine availability. The cuisines that my family and I are limited to in my part of the country, so often my only option is to prepare it myself.
2) And more importantly, is healthiness. I can order the same commercially available meals that I make at home (and save myself the trouble of cooking) but in my personal experience, everything I order vs cook at home results in poorer health no matter what it is. Family and I experience immediate weight gain, bp and other vitals increase with ordered food vs home-cooked. I'm sure that commercial meals need to be prepared with 'enhancers' to make them commercially viable; and if cooked truly homemade they would go out of business.
So, if I could order commercial meals that are most importantly, as healthy as what I can make at home, and preferably get the culinary diversity we desire as well, I would be totally on board with ordering most meals for my family and me.
Any thoughts or comments?
Three reasons for me:
I like cooking.
I want to know what I eat and how nutritional my food is.
I think working for your own food is much more satisfying.
Kibbit especially when you’re experimenting and it turns out wonderful
Kibbit
I also love the challenge of trying to find REAL food in the stores these days lol. My boomer mother never reads ingredients, and it drives me batshit crazy. She has breast cancer for the second time right now, yet she refuses to change her diet and start reading ingredients.
She thinks that if she isn’t physically adding sugar to something or eating a desert, for example, that she is keeping her sugar consumption low. I try to point out to her that she actually has a high sugar consumption (as do most Americans) because it gets added to EVERYTHING here in the States (it’s either sugar or corn syrup/high fructose corn syrup, ofc)!
I showed her that her salad dressing she gets (some poppyseed creamy shit) that has sugar added to it, ffs (having sugar with a salad is just ridiculous!). Same goes with her marinara sauce, etc.
It took me searching high and low to find marinara sauce that doesn’t have sugar in it. It was bananas that it was that hard to do. My Italian great-grandmother never added sugar to her marinara sauce! That is blasphemy! I finally found it at Trader Joe’s (and next to my Great-Grandma’s homemade sauce, I have to say that the search was well worth it and TJ’s sauce is second best to hers. 🙂).
I really like knowing what is in my food!
I feel like Adam is slowly going insane from an existential crisis
It happens when you leave a full time long time job. Free time seems amazing at first, til you have too much time with yourself, then everything gets questioned
Wow! I loved this video!! Everything Made so much sense. Thanks Adam
I came to this video not expecting much but it was much more in depth than I thought it'd be. Very good job on it.
To add to it, I'd say there's another important reason for cooking at home (Not that I do much cooking myself though). If you cook something yourself, then you can count on having that meal any time in life that you want it. If you get something from a store or restaurant, then you are at their mercy not to get rid of it, modify it, or increase the price. I mean, just look at the Hostess outlet, they had some awesome raspberry bread loafs but they went out of business many years ago. Just one example of many for if you like something a lot.
My mother has a friend who's about 50-60 and doesn't cook anything. Not even in the microwave. She literally won't take leftovers home because she won't microwave it later. It actually blows my mind that someone can live that way.
So she eats out a lot?
@@ugn154 I guess so, I don't really understand it
With the semi-poor lighting, you'd think Adam is slowly turning into Adam from an alternate universe. Long live the empire.
We just might be in the darkest timeline.
Lol. I liked the lighting in this one.
Lmao I love this comment
Dear Adam: please use more diffused white light. Thanks in advance.
Also use a fill light
Oxford college! My high school used to have our band camp there !!! Good times...
Good stuff Adam!
I enjoy cooking for myself and others. I also have a severe gluten allergy so my kitchen and my lunch box are good friends
Why I cook at home: Its one of the few things I'm very competent at and have little fear of messing up in. It's something that relaxes me and if I've fallen into one of my cycles of depression, it's something that helps distract me from that. It gives me a few moments of happiness and clear thoughts. It also connects me with my friends. I never cook to impress, at least it's not my intention. I cook because I want to make people happy, which in turn makes me happy and I feel it brings me closer to my friends and family.
Reasons for cooking at home:
- Have fun learning and improving cooking skills
- Reduce waste
- Impress loved ones
- Eat cuisines that are not so available where I live
Addendum:
- Eat more balanced meals
- Avoid bad ingredients in restaurants or takeouts
@@lcb931023 -gain an added appreciation for the food, both in the preparation and the appreciation of the work it takes and also seeing lots of ingredients reminds me that all my food comes in pretty fresh from all over the world. Crazy times we live in.
For me, home-cooked meals are part of what makes a house a home. I don't have any strong connections to my extended family, and I'm honestly not a huge fan of the food I was raised with. But, finding my own set of recipes that work for me and my husband is very rewarding. No one else makes the exact set of foods that we do. I'm no master chef, but the food I prepare is part of what makes my home life unique.
Home cooking is also a great way to build relationships outside the home. Fawing over a friend's homemade cookies, bringing a dish to the family get-together, and swapping recipes with a coworker all help maintain our relationships.
Lastly, I associate cooking at home with being a responsible adult. Going from eating bland sandwiches and pasta/cheese bowls to whipping up proper meals most nights each week showed me that personal growth is possible. I don't exercise nearly enough, and my morning routine is a wreck. But the fact that I have the discipline to make food 4-5 nights every week shows me that I can develop all sorts of other good habits if I put my mind to it.
Hey, I really liked your monologue at the end - my spouse and I are about to cook a few gallons of white chicken chili, thanks for the energy boost!
When you cook at home you ensure the quality of food you're eating and modify the taste depending on your preference. Like my mom did when we ate at a local Chinese restaurant. She doesn't like a couple of stuff added in the dish, a few days later she re-created it and changed the some of the ingredients. It tasted better than the one we had in the restaurant.
Adam, I know I’m a bit late on this video, but this has inspired me to comment. As a child I was a super fussy eater, to the point where I would refuse to even try most food. Now as an adult who no longer lives at home, you, have inspired me to not only try more food, but to have a go at cooking myself, something I always found a bit terrifying. But you’re style of demonstration in your videos has made me think, “it doesn’t have to end up looking exactly the same as the professional’s”. I now cook more food at home than I ever thought I would. Thank you for being you.
I just discovered you a week or so ago. I cant tell you home much I loved this video. Liked... and now subscribed :)