Ameer Kotecha

Why bother cooking?

It's a recipe for contentment – and it doesn’t need to be complicated

  • From Spectator Life
[Alamy]

In a world of ultra-convenience, I think making the argument for home cooking is important. Because a lifestyle of takeaway delivery apps, ready meals or eating out every day is not a recipe for health and happiness, no matter how easy the modern world makes it.  

One of the downsides of the cult of the ‘foodie’ is that it can make food and cooking more intimidating than they need to be. If you’re a Londoner, invite friends over for a dinner of lasagne and garlic bread and you’ll have one guest asking if the pasta is fresh or dried and the other telling you to try roasting the garlic for 24 hours in a low oven next time to unleash its inner umami. It’s enough to put anyone off. And while clear guidance is obviously helpful, I worry that the exacting requirements of many recipes in cookbooks and newspapers can put people off trying them. In most cases (baking being the general exception) it matters not a jot whether you use two garlic cloves or three, flat-leaf parsley or curly. It will taste much the same. I like to use recipes for inspiration and general guidelines but rarely more; following a recipe slavishly is as stressful for me as anxiously digesting the instruction manual for flat-pack furniture.

The fact is that basic cooking is actually incredibly easy. And often the most delicious things to eat are the simplest to cook. Indeed, sometimes it is a case more of assembly than cookery (think the perfect niçoise salad). This is something the most accomplished experts know full well. There is good reason why every time a top chef is asked for their favourite meal it will be something of sublime simplicity: spaghetti in tomato sauce for Jamie Oliver; roast beef for Gordon Ramsay; a ham sandwich for Marco Pierre White; macaroni cheese for Heston Blumenthal.

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