I like and enjoy cooking but don't do it nearly as often. Mostly because I think it is kind of a waste of time. Even simple meals require 30-45 minutes of labor (I know you think it is less but time it out with prep, cooking, and cleaning). And sometimes you really make something amazing, and sometimes you make something terrible. But the worst case is you make something that is just completely fine that you could have purchased which maybe would have cost you more if you bought it but it would just be done. Restaurants have extreme advantages in terms of specialty of labor and purchase power that you can never achieve. If you are cooking for a family and particularly a large family, you can get closer to some kind of equilibrium.
Well, it depends on the meal - it can take me well over an hour to make dinner but that's if everything is from scratch, including washing/prepping fresh vegetables. A good shortcut is to only make the entrée from scratch (like, frozen spinach, box of rice pilaf, some kind of homemade chicken dish).
The idea that restaurants have advantages may be true of good restaurants, but I find that my "American" food is almost always better than the average restaurant (steak, chicken, pasta, etc.). And because I live near Wegmans and Whole Foods, *I* have access to extremely high-quality ingredients at prices that are still lower than restaurants. Like, a place in Reston charges $45 for a 14. oz choice ribeye steak and potatoes - I can buy a prime dry-aged ribeye and a box of decent frozen creamed spinach for less than that. I actually wrote a piece about that, about how better supermarkets are a subtle reason why everyday restaurants feel less exciting.
But then again I enjoy cooking a lot, it's kind of a hobby, so your mileage may vary!
I think the mid-priced "American" restaurant is probably the worst value you can get in the restaurant world, where you are largely paying for a nice experience over the food, so I think you make good points.
Yeah, I figured that out once I learned how to get a nice sear on a steak without firing up the grill. Or how to bake salmon. My wife and I go to Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Japanese restaurants. I can't make that stuff or it's too complicated (I can do sushi but just tuna and salmon). I kind of *want* to go get a steak or burger or grilled chicken sometimes but it's tough to want it when you can do it yourself. Luckily where we live there are so many international cuisines, so it's easy to find a place that seems fun.
Yes, exactly. Plus, restaurants have gotten SO expensive, and most of them use garbage ingredients like soybean oil even among the hoity toity “farm to table” set. And we have a kid, and not really any reliable childcare, so I’m happy to spend the time putting together a lasagna from scratch, or Swedish meatballs, or searing a giant Chuck roast before tossing it in the crockpot with the leftover wine from my parents’ 50th anniversary party.
There definitely is this strange combination of lack of skills + (perceived?) lack of time...but at some level it really is just a question of priorities. Everyone wants to “eat healthy”, but without recognizing that this project takes time and effort. Yes, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers spent hours in the kitchen - partly because they didn’t have crockpots and air fryers, but also because they knew that feeding their families well was a very important task. In the convenience of “tv dinners” and “meal replacement shakes”, we seem to have forgotten that, as a culture, which makes me sad.
I have gotten pretty good at cooking from scratch, but I still dont enjoy it.
I do it because I want to feel good about what my family is eating… and because I’m cheap. 😂
There are some foods I am thrilled to get at a restaurant because they take too much time and/or attention when I make them at home - like risotto, or really nice burgers (I always get spattered with grease when I make fresh burgers at home). But I also know my limitations and am ok with shortcuts - when they’re not too expensive. ;)
I also share the sentiment that I don’t enjoy going to restaurants as much, except for very special things that cannot be made at home or something really cheap. I happen to have a sister and a couple close friends who are amazing cooks and I have been trained to compare every restaurant meals with their food. They win most of the time.
I've gotten the same way about restaurants -- I'm much more interested in going out to get kinds of food that I'm not very good at cooking (Indian comes to mind because I don't have all the spices or equipment, like a tandoori oven) than "fancier" food that I could just make at home. I hate the feeling of paying a bunch for a meal at a restaurant and realizing that I could have made something at least as good for a couple of bucks.
I like and enjoy cooking but don't do it nearly as often. Mostly because I think it is kind of a waste of time. Even simple meals require 30-45 minutes of labor (I know you think it is less but time it out with prep, cooking, and cleaning). And sometimes you really make something amazing, and sometimes you make something terrible. But the worst case is you make something that is just completely fine that you could have purchased which maybe would have cost you more if you bought it but it would just be done. Restaurants have extreme advantages in terms of specialty of labor and purchase power that you can never achieve. If you are cooking for a family and particularly a large family, you can get closer to some kind of equilibrium.
Well, it depends on the meal - it can take me well over an hour to make dinner but that's if everything is from scratch, including washing/prepping fresh vegetables. A good shortcut is to only make the entrée from scratch (like, frozen spinach, box of rice pilaf, some kind of homemade chicken dish).
The idea that restaurants have advantages may be true of good restaurants, but I find that my "American" food is almost always better than the average restaurant (steak, chicken, pasta, etc.). And because I live near Wegmans and Whole Foods, *I* have access to extremely high-quality ingredients at prices that are still lower than restaurants. Like, a place in Reston charges $45 for a 14. oz choice ribeye steak and potatoes - I can buy a prime dry-aged ribeye and a box of decent frozen creamed spinach for less than that. I actually wrote a piece about that, about how better supermarkets are a subtle reason why everyday restaurants feel less exciting.
But then again I enjoy cooking a lot, it's kind of a hobby, so your mileage may vary!
I think the mid-priced "American" restaurant is probably the worst value you can get in the restaurant world, where you are largely paying for a nice experience over the food, so I think you make good points.
Yeah, I figured that out once I learned how to get a nice sear on a steak without firing up the grill. Or how to bake salmon. My wife and I go to Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Japanese restaurants. I can't make that stuff or it's too complicated (I can do sushi but just tuna and salmon). I kind of *want* to go get a steak or burger or grilled chicken sometimes but it's tough to want it when you can do it yourself. Luckily where we live there are so many international cuisines, so it's easy to find a place that seems fun.
Yes, exactly. Plus, restaurants have gotten SO expensive, and most of them use garbage ingredients like soybean oil even among the hoity toity “farm to table” set. And we have a kid, and not really any reliable childcare, so I’m happy to spend the time putting together a lasagna from scratch, or Swedish meatballs, or searing a giant Chuck roast before tossing it in the crockpot with the leftover wine from my parents’ 50th anniversary party.
There definitely is this strange combination of lack of skills + (perceived?) lack of time...but at some level it really is just a question of priorities. Everyone wants to “eat healthy”, but without recognizing that this project takes time and effort. Yes, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers spent hours in the kitchen - partly because they didn’t have crockpots and air fryers, but also because they knew that feeding their families well was a very important task. In the convenience of “tv dinners” and “meal replacement shakes”, we seem to have forgotten that, as a culture, which makes me sad.
I have gotten pretty good at cooking from scratch, but I still dont enjoy it.
I do it because I want to feel good about what my family is eating… and because I’m cheap. 😂
There are some foods I am thrilled to get at a restaurant because they take too much time and/or attention when I make them at home - like risotto, or really nice burgers (I always get spattered with grease when I make fresh burgers at home). But I also know my limitations and am ok with shortcuts - when they’re not too expensive. ;)
I also share the sentiment that I don’t enjoy going to restaurants as much, except for very special things that cannot be made at home or something really cheap. I happen to have a sister and a couple close friends who are amazing cooks and I have been trained to compare every restaurant meals with their food. They win most of the time.
I've gotten the same way about restaurants -- I'm much more interested in going out to get kinds of food that I'm not very good at cooking (Indian comes to mind because I don't have all the spices or equipment, like a tandoori oven) than "fancier" food that I could just make at home. I hate the feeling of paying a bunch for a meal at a restaurant and realizing that I could have made something at least as good for a couple of bucks.