Food writing is one of our favourite genres here at Luna, and few writers today, are as good at it, as Michael Pollan. He’s written several books about the production of food and the eating of it, but like he says in the introduction to Cooked, he hadn’t thought much about the middle part of this chain, the cooking of the food, the everyday process that happens in the kitchen.
He knew his way around the kitchen, but he hadn’t ventured beyond his small repertoire of recipes, and hadn’t thought in any real depth about the business of cooking, what it is exactly, and how it happens. That is what he does in this book. He examines the act of cooking, something that humanity has been doing for a million years, and something that a lot of people have stopped doing now, believing that it is too complicated, that they don’t have time for it, and that, like so many other things, cooking is best left to the professionals.
He points out that unlike other jobs that we’ve outsourced, cooking has an emotional and psychological power over us that we haven’t quite been able to shake. Because the act of cooking is so fundamental to who we are as a species, when we give it up, we lose something important. And this is perhaps why, even as more and more people choose not to cook, the number and variety of television shows about food and cooking have gone up, and so has their viewership.
This book is an argument in favour of cooking, the difference it can make to our lives as individuals and families, and the difference it can make to society. This could’ve all turned out to be very preachy, but it isn’t at all. What it is, is a delightful exploration of the immense pleasure that can be found in making the time to gather a bunch of good ingredients, preparing them with a bit of skill, and cooking, grilling, baking, and fermenting them to produce something delicious and nourishing.
This book is part memoir, part science, part social and cultural history, all tied together with the journalistic curiosity that drives all of Pollan’s work. He begins by dividing the processes involved in cooking into grilling, pot cooking, baking and fermentation. Each of these correspond to the four primary elements - fire, water, air, and earth - which become the basis for how the book is organised, into four parts, each devoted to one element and one style of cooking, which Pollan explores in terms of its role in human history and the way these cooking methods have shaped us and our cultures.
In each of these sections he writes about his experience apprenticing himself to an expert, (a barbecue pit master, a chef, a baker, a fermentor, a cheese-maker, and a brewer) working with them and learning from them, as he tries to develop his skills and his understanding of how they do what they do. The point of this is to understand the process so that he can get beyond recipes, whether he’s grilling, making a stew, baking bread, making sauerkraut, or trying his hand at brewing.
He acknowledges that some of the more specialised forms of making food, like baking bread or cheesemaking require the kind of time and commitment that is beyond most peoples’ ability to give. He didn’t think that he would be doing any of these things, other than everyday cooking, once he was done writing this book, but he surprised himself by developing the kind of passion for baking bread that he’d never expected to feel. He admits that he hasn’t taken up cheese-making or making kimchi, but he’s glad he learnt how to do these things - it’s good to learn these skills even if we only use them occasionally, because it is always empowering to know how.
While much of the book is personal, Pollan takes a larger view as well, writing about the way cooking connects us to the natural world and to our communities. He argues that by outsourcing our meals to the food industry, we've lost touch with the essential act of cooking. Reclaiming this skill is not just about healthier eating, but about building a deeper relationship with the food we consume.
In an age where almost everyone is on a diet of some kind, and we talk about food in terms of clean eating and guilty pleasures, this is an unabashed celebration of good food and the joy that can be found both in the cooking and the eating of it.
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