I believe everyone should learn to cook. In his book ‘Cooked’, Michael Pollan very nicely outlined the reasons why we should all learn, which I have summarised to be:
We should all learn to cook because it
- improves health and general well-being.
- makes the food system healthier and more sustainable.
- helps us to achieve a greater degree of self-sufficiency.
- helps us to acquire a deeper understanding of the natural world and our role in it.
- not only gives us the meal, but the occasion through which we can develop the practice of eating together at an appointed time and place.
- allows us to become alchemists and puts us in touch with the laws of physics, chemistry, biology and microbiology.
Like Pollan, I too believe that everyone should learn to cook, not just girls, women or those who identify as female. As he so aptly put it, “Men and children both need to be in the kitchen too, not just for fairness and equity, but because they have so much to gain.” Indeed they do!
Lee Xiu Ping 