Monday, April 23, 2007

"B" and men cooking

As in the quote from the last post, Fisher regards men's cooking as synonymous with seduction and not from the pleasures of gastronomy. The idea of a man making a home-cooked meal sounds charming and antiquated to me, but that could be the company I've kept in the past.

We ran a wire story (I wish I could find the full version) on the food industry taking an interest in men who viewed cooking beyond what you could slap on the grill with a Pabst in hand. Here's the article, but note the sex element still comes into play:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/mar/21/food_industry_reaching_out_men/

5 comments:

kc said...

I am increasingly appalled by men who pride themselves on their ignorance of food preparation (there are several in my family and in my acquaintance) or who are content to just always be fed by someone else, to take no REAL interest in a meal. Feeding yourself is such a basic part of life. And feeding your lover is such a basic pleasure that I can't imagine anyone, male or female, not wanting to do it.

Erin said...

Ben cooked me one of those seduction meals once. He came to my house and made me breakfast one morning, early in our dating life. It was bacon and eggs and toast, I think.

Ben has been the cook through most of our relationship, actually. It's only in the past couple of years that I started doing most of the cooking. It never struck me as odd or special, which is sort of interesting, I guess, because cooking was definitely defined by gender in my family. My dad never cooked anything, ever.

cl said...

I wonder if there's an aspect to it of men thinking/learning that women want to be pampered on a material level -- that the man's job is to take a woman places and buy her baubles. I think TV and music reinforce that idea that a man can land a woman if he's got money to take her places. Anyway, a home-cooked meal might not fall into that train of thought.

cl said...

Erin, bacon and eggs sounds like a great seduction meal. Or just a great meal.

Ben said...

I don't remember cooking you breakfast early in our dating relationship.

I wish I cooked more. I've let it go just as I've let everything else in my life go (I don't clean myself enough, I don't pay bills on time, I don't do any housework). I used to have lots of pride in my cooking, and any praise received was so wonderful. And I know what you mean, kc, about serving one's partner -- it's great.

My maternal grandfather cooked breakfast whenever we stayed at their house. I don't know whether he did that everyday when he was working. I'm sure grandma cooked supper.

My father had a smaller repertoire of dishes than my mother (my mother could take any ingredients and make at least a casserole out of them), but he would sometimes make supper. For many years he got home from work in the early afternoon, but mom still made supper more often than he did. Larger meals (for holidays and Sunday lunch) were done completely by my mother, until I got old enough to help. I don't think my brother ever helped. But Justin is good at making food now, after working as a cook in several restaurants.