http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/29/the-kitchen-is-our-egg Comments On: The Kitchen Is Our Egg by Charles Mudede en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sat, 25 May 2013 21:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by rainandkale]]> Sat, 01 Dec 2012 15:23:16 -0800 The Stranger http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/ca…

Just like micro-living, no-kitchen living is an interesting thought experiment but wildly impractical/undesirable for most people.

However, I am interested in the concept of co-op living -- unrelated adults sharing a larger household -- like college student living, only for adults. I wonder why it doesn't happen more often, especially in times of economic downturn. Is it just that adults are all cranky control freaks who can't get along with others and need higher levels of privacy? Is it the logistical difficulty of maintaining a household of the appropriate size? The lack of suitable spaces available? Neighborhood regulations that discourage or forbid such living arrangements?

Posted by McJulie]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:14:46 -0800 The Stranger
Herp.
Derp.

Pffft....
Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:36:21 -0800 The Stranger
That said, I find it refreshing that Mudede is willing to argue the demolition of the status quo; never to do so--all to common--is reactionary and infantile.
Posted by woof]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2012 07:03:43 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Sandiai]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:57:55 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Charles Mudede]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:25:40 -0800 The Stranger Posted by NoelleyB]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:20:20 -0800 The Stranger
But then, I used to get paid for my cooking so perhaps I'm picky. I don't tend to go to restaurants because, except for specialized equipment, techniques, or ingredients, I can usually make food better than the restaurants I can afford for every day.
Posted by Prettybetsy]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:50:10 -0800 The Stranger
My wife does actually cook for a living. Also, we live in a city. Do we get a pass?
Posted by casusbelli]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:47:31 -0800 The Stranger
You’ve been taking a lot of heat this week for both this post and for the post on micro-living. The way I see it, your posts have been so controversial, not because of the questions they raise, but for two other reasons: a pronounced tendency toward oversimplification, and a lack of control over tone.

Land use, housing costs, and development patterns are complex issues, each of which is complicated by the fact that a diverse community is, more or less by definition, prone to have diverse views and preferences in matters of personal interest, such as where and how to live, and whether a solution that is both practical and desirable for one group of people will be either practical or desirable for a second, third or fourth group.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with raising the question of whether current patterns of land use or housing development are wasteful. There is nothing wrong with urging people to give careful thought about how much space they really need for their daily lives. However, when you state categorically that “we should all see [micro-living]as the ideal,” and make moral pronouncements such as “The less private space you have means the more human you are,” you are not only oversimplifying very complex issues, but you are doing so in a way that is morally judgmental.

The problem is exacerbated when you move from the general to the specific, and make judgmental statements not only about broad patterns of living, but individual behaviors within that pattern. You might not like to cook, for example, but by dismissing cooking as a “boring business” that is best left up to “those who can actually cook,” you denigrate those of us who take understandable pleasure and often justifiable pride in an activity that is, for many people, their primary creative outlet. For some of those people, the “creativity” may be nothing more than adding an egg to a box of cake mix, but I am hardly alone in liking to make cakes from scratch, to experiment with recipes, and sometimes to actually create them.

If housing and sustainability are your concerns, then you should, by all means, seek out creative solutions to problems. Feel free to suggest that there should be more micro-housing to provide one alternative to some people. Feel free to suggest that a homeowner might give serious thought as to whether a $30,000 kitchen makeover is ecologically or economically justified; for some of us it might be, for others, not so much.

It is a mistake, however, to advocate any one-size-fits all solution to complex issues, and especially if you cannot do so without coming off as self-righteous and more than a little annoying.

Posted by Clayton]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:39:47 -0800 The Stranger i've been shopping and cooking since i was ten that's almost 50 years from my single mother's kitchen to my own. both my brothers are the primary cooks in their households, my sister doesn't cook at all. except for baking holiday cookies, her daughter is trying to learn/ teach herself how. most men i know personally are home cooks and i'd guess more than half are the primary cooks in their homes, so i haven't personally observed the gender inequity you mention. i suspect that race and class play large roles in this, but without evidence or a conversation with people who see this from another angle, i can't say that i get it. but i'm interested , so maybe now i'll do some googling around. the subject.
thanks
Posted by reverend dr dj riz]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:36:45 -0800 The Stranger It's only a gender issue if you make it one, or allow others to make it one for you.
In this household everyone learns to cook since we consider it a neccessary life skill. My spouse and I share the cooking and are both good cooks. There were times when one or the other did the majority of the cooking because of time or health issues.
OTOH, if one of us was substantially better at it than the other, then that person would probably do the majority of the cooking, but it wouldn't be gender based.

It's possible that neither Charles, nor his wife, cook and he's trying to find reasons not to learn how.
Posted by swing state voter]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:11:08 -0800 The Stranger surprised that I refused to do more than my share of our cooking. I know plenty of men who are reliable and excellent cooks, but the norm is very much about men relying on women to put in unpaid labor to feed them. Of course it's a gender issue.
Posted by thene]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:52:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Calpete]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:42:37 -0800 The Stranger Posted by reverend dr dj riz]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:37:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by thene]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:34:53 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Fistique]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:34:31 -0800 The Stranger Posted by reverend dr dj riz]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:17:20 -0800 The Stranger
Home cooking is not less economical than eating in restaurants. The investment in kitchen space, appliances, energy, and food required to sustain a family is much less than the cost of feeding that family in restaurants.

Home cooking is not less ecologically sustainable than restaurants. That is primarily a function of personal choice and people can choose to be less wasteful.

Home cooking is a whole lot more convenient than eating out. I can get food at any hour even when I don't feel or look well enough to go out.

Home cooking is more versatile than eating in restaurants. Even in the city not every cuisine I might want is available.

Cooking is art. It can be high art or folk art. It is an art form that many people can practice. Shall none of us sing because there are professional singers who do it better? Should none of us dance when there are professional dancers. Should none of us draw? make music? write or tell stories? You're an ass, Charles if you don't recognize cooking as art and therefore an invaluable part of the human experience.

Finally, you seem to have forgotten the emotional elements of preparing food. To prepare food for others is an expression of love and hospitality in a way that purchasing food can never be.
Posted by Charlie Mas]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:10:18 -0800 The Stranger
Not a word in either post or comments about the gender issues involved in home cooking, though? Bad form.
Posted by Fistique]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:56:52 -0800 The Stranger
When we built this multi-family complex, we made a big mistake, we lost money. We gave them small gardens and windows, we installed water, lighting and heating systems — this was a wrong concept. A man doesn’t need a home, all he needs is a shelter.

If we can sell him on the idea of a shelter, we can make millions. The worker will come here only to sleep. He won’t need electricity or water. He won’t have to cook. We’ll condition him to eat at the factory.
Posted by Lut]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:34:06 -0800 The Stranger
Your ideal of food preparation taking place entirely outside the home is a fiction of urban authenticity, if anything.
Posted by Hernandez]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:20:51 -0800 The Stranger
Don't forget one other factor: 20 homes with food in a crisis is FAR better than 1 commercial kitchen in that same crisis. Food security, mon ami. All the grocery stores & restaurants in any city have only about 3 days worth of food in them.
I like to keep a stocked larder and stay a few days ahead of that. You dig?
Posted by treacle]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:19:25 -0800 The Stranger The Dinner Ninja!
Posted by treacle]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:13:04 -0800 The Stranger
Aside from the fact that it's cheaper to cook at home (as several sloogers have already noted), keep in mind, too, that it's cheaper in the long run for me to remain healthy than to spend days or weeks in a hospital CCU hooked up to machines and getting anti-coagulants in an IV drip. Since my health coverage is paid for, not just by me and my employer, but by everyone else in the insurance pool, it is to the advantage of the pool for me--and everyone else--to eat fewer meals in restaurants which, at both the high and the low end of the price scale, tend to deliver a lot more in the way of fats and salts than home-cooked meals using fresh, non-processed ingredients.

Plus--my husband and I both like to cook, thank you very much, and we're not giving that up in service of Charles' abstract fantasy of the common good.
Posted by Clayton]]> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:09:20 -0800 The Stranger