How come fewer and fewer young people can cook?!
Answers: I'm not trying to make a blanket statement, because there are some that are good cooks, but, I'm 23 and have been in the kitchen since I was 6 or 7. I'm a damn good cook and very proud of that. I have so many friends, some even have children, who don't know a whisk from a rubber spatula. WHY? What are your thoughts?
People don't eat at home anymore. Or, if they do, it's restaurant food. As people are getting busier and busier, family dinners have become a thing of the past, replaced with fast food, TV or microwave dinners. Also, with the luxury of a little surplus money, families eat out more often.
As such, cooking is no longer a important skill. An intricate knowledge of the microwave is much more important.
Me, though, I'm with you. I'm a damn good cook and proud of it!
I don't know. I can cook.
Because the teenage generations are too lazy to get off MySpace, Guitar Hero, or the couch and read a cook book, or pay attention in cooking class, or whatever they take.
Because McDonalds and Pizza hut does not require actual skills in the kitchen.
It's because there are so many fast food restaurants, and if you don't want to spend the time driving there, there's tv dinners to be had, and there are so many confusing low fat bonanzas, why not let them decide for you what's healthy or not. It's easier.
But just for the record, I can cook pretty awesome too.
Because the parents didn't teach them. And, the lifestyle of parents do not afford them the time to be in the kitchen with their kids. In the past, kids saw their parents in the kitchen more, but now more parents are forced to work, so we are now a fast food nation.
more free time and their parents like to teach them their skills
I think today, too many kids get everything handed to them and without thinking about it, thier parents are actually hurting them
seems like there are a lot of people on here who know how to cook/bake. i think mostly it's because they were never taught or maybe like my sister-in-law it's not there forte.
There are lots of ready to eat foods in the market...and lots of restaurants. Life is so much faster these days, unlike the good old days when everybody eats at home, cook, etc. but now, you grab anything you can eat because you have a schedule to meet, etc.
because years ago grandparents from olden days that didnt have fast food or delivery taught their children and now its our grandparents usually have had fastfood around and yea
People don't cook because their parents or grandparents never taught them how to cook. They could take cooking lessons, but most are just fine with buying food that only has to be microwaved, or going out to eat, or getting 'take out' every night. All four of my kids know how to cook, but they are 'very rare' today ... and they are teaching their kids to cook, too ...
i'm fifteen, and I CAN cook gourmet meals. However i'm lazy and never see the point of it.
First of all, I think we have change our life-style. There are fast food every where and there are so much to do, so many interesting things to see, hear, get involve with, etc. that cooking seems to be the last thing to consider.
For example, myself. I live alone. Sometimes I cook for myself if I really wanted to eat that special dish. Then it usually takes me an hour or more to finish the meal from shop, clean, cut, cook and eat for 10 or 15 minutes. Then spend over 20 - 30 minutes to clean and wash the pots and pans. Then I'm exhausted!
Does it worth it, yes, but not every day.
Mom's working out of the house, fast food culture, T.V. Dinners. Take your pick though it is probably a combination of all of these.
Seriously? I think it is because they just don't want to. Young people are kind of spoiled by fast food and easy grocery stores. The don't want to, don't have to, and don't care enough to try yet. Not true for all young people of course!
With all the packaged food available there is no incentive for the younger genration to learn to cook properly.
All they need now is a tin opener, a pair of scissors and a microwave.
Simple, a lot of parents decide that they have neither the time or inclination to either cook for themselves, or teach there children how to.
What with fast food and prepackaged dinners, there aren't that many who do cook from scratch anyway. For some if it doesn't come in a package, pre-mixed with instructions, then they can't cope.
Its just another basic life skill that has fallen to the wayside.
It's just too easy to buy some ready-made food from the grocery or delicatessen store. It always tastes good and you don't have to work to get it ready.
i can cook and i could use the stove at 8 and turn on the oven at 12 now i do all the cooking in my family lol = ] i love it!!!!
in fact i cooked some butter biscuits just then lol
I was raise by my mother...in the kitchen....since I was 4. She taught me everything I needed to know about cooking and baking and I was actively involved since I was very little. I think an adult (mother, father, aunt, uncle) should start early enough to show kids how to cook. How else would you learn it??
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I think its because of the rising "Fast-food" culture.
I don't know, but all of my children help me cook and bake - I am the same, I have been cooking since I was about 10 or 11 and I am almost 32. All of my friends and family love what I make and it is now to the point that I can take any recipe and fit it to our tastes. I have many types of pans and other specialty cooking things that I use (i.e. a scale). I know all about ingredients and how they work and which ones are ok to use store brand and which have to be a specific brand (i.e. bread yeast). Hopefully when my kids are out on their own they will be very compitent in the kitchen and love cooking and baking. I am trying to give them a good start on it. I especially think it is important becasue I have all boys.
possibly could be the rise in dual working parents or single parenting. Did your mom or dad stay at home? Or were you a latchkey kiddo? (I'm not saying anything against these folks...we all do what we can) I would say that might have something to do with it. I know what you mean though..I've got a few years on you, but most of my friends bake or cook out of a box. I'm fortunate enough to stay home, so I have the time to cook from scratch. OH..and I had NO interest in cooking..until I got married :)...I was a latchkey kid.
I learned how to cook and bake from spending summers with my grandma and my aunt. My great aunt also let me help her with the Christmas Eve feast.
Children learn only when someone teaches them. I suspect that children have less interest to cook, combined with family that doesn't cook or is not interested in cooking.
Lots of people that age are used to fast food, and I am not necessarily talking about McD's. Just food that is ready almost instantly. So having to make something from scratch seems like a lot of work to do. Besides, lots of young people can't read and/or follow directions. (Not a blanket statement either) All you have to do is read the questions in here by young people, to see that reading and writing of the English language is very poor.
Maybe you could develop a cookbook in text speak, and get others your age interested.
I was a latchkey kid, and did all the cooking for my family. Dinner had to be on the table when they all got home.
well maybe the children havn't been experimenting with the food like help out with their mothers makin cookie or brownie or cakes
Fast Food, Take n' Bake, Car side To Go. All of this is much easier to get and then easier to make for teens and adults. Im 15 and ive been cooking since i was 6 too. So i defiantly feel what your saying, but it also that a lot of families don't eat together so either no body wants to cook and then get crap food, or the mom makes food and leaves it out and everyone eventually eats. Im from Holland and me and my mom both cook different days a week and we eat together almost all days of the week. So i cook with my mom so i'll definantly teach my kids(maybe one day) to cook.
I can cook I'm 24 and like you I was taught to be n the kitchen at a young age. As for my friends they don't cook that much at all and when they do it is fatty food most of my friends have kids too. I give them my easiest recipe's and they still rather get take away or heat up dinners. What i think is parents should give their children healthy dinners everynite like meat n veggies and I'm gonna teach my kids how to cook at a young age so we don't pass ongoing obesity down to other generations.
Reading some other comments my mum worked nite shift and she was a single mother of 4 but I still had dinner on the table after touch practice me and my brothers pitched in together I had to peel vegies when I got home from school. So il have say my brother taught me how to cook
Be proud that you were raised by parents that feel it's important to teach basic skills. I will forever be grateful for my great-gram including me in the kitchen when I was 6 or so teaching me the basics... 20 some years later, and culinary school, I am a personal chef! Thanks Gram!
Did you have a stay at home parent? That's how most learned to cook. Then there was those of us who either had to learn or starve.
I'm a great cook and so are my kids,ages 17.13 and 11. They love spending time in the kitchen with me.that's where Mommy gets goofy.
I had to start working and it was awful because I made 5 different meals on Sunday to last the rest of the week. My WONDERFUL children noticed this and wanted to pitch in and this was 5 years ago.
My oldest who wanted to be a policeman now wants to be a Chef.
If you look in the store Damn Near "EVERYTHING" is Pre-done for you.
So I'm guessing between the fast food stops on the way home and ALL the Heat and Eat,pre-cut,sliced and diced why would anyone have to learn. Someone else has already done the hard things.